The Phoenix's Amend
by Jean Phoenix Soul
Summary: The Phoenix entity offers Scott the possibility to live with Jean in a parallel universe where she has never been possessed by the Phoenix but, will that be enough to grant their happiness after Emma was involved?
1. A Phoenix at Dawn

**A Phoenix at Dawn**

In Winchester, New York, a red-haired woman entered her modest room at the Institute for Gifted Youngsters without even bothering to turn on the lights, and sat on her bed. The pale moonlight coming in through the window lit her face, making the tears rolling down her cheeks look like small round pearls.

The relationship with her husband had really deteriorated since he had been posessed by Apocalypse. Scott had transformed into a completely different person. He had become cold and distant, so they had started arguing too often and then just stopped spending time together until she moved to a different room near the end of their marriage.

Lying in bed for hours night after night with her eyes wide open, thinking about what could have been but wasn't, just staring at the shadows the tree by her window casted on the ceiling when the wind shook its leaves. That was her routine now, her every waken moment spent trying to figure out what it was exactly that she had done wrong to deserve Scott's indifference. Then, a few hours of restless sleep, where Scott and Emma lived happily ever after in her nightmares and he turned into the very evil they had fought to destroy for so long.

Light. Darkness. Fire, consuming fire. Life. Light. Darkness. Fire, oh the fire! Life. Death. Rebirth. Life again and then death, and the fire... that fire that consumed it all with a will of its own, taking over her life and everything precious to her with it. Jean had broken the hearts of those she loved so many times it wasn't worth trying counting them anymore. It was a horrible cycle, a cicrle, and everybody knows a circle has no end. Destined to linger between life and death forever. That was her fate.

Resurrected against her will. That was a new one, she had to admit, even for the Phoenix... and then death again, but not just any death. It was the most horrible death she could possibly imagine. Murdered by her loved ones, once again, time after time because there was no one else capable of doing the dirty job. Nobody else dared to put down the rabid dog, except for those who know its suffeing. She had wished for death, begged for it so many times. She wanted to die. She wanted it so bad it hurt. Every single cell in her body craved for death, definite death. Eternal death. Not in a defeatist way, of course. Jean had never been the depressive type. She just wanted peace, for her and everyone else.

Jean felt so lonely it felt like a physical pain. Her life was plain and demotivating. Nobody wanted her there and she didn't want to be there either. Why did she have to be reborn after all the trouble Scott, Emma, Logan and everybody else went through to destroy her during what the cynical Phoenix living inside her called Endsong? To what purpose this time? Had she done the right thing by modifying Scott's mind so he would love Emma instead of her? Did she have the right to do such a thing with her powers? That was certainly not what they had dreamed their future together would be. They had been so young and full of life and love… Would that mind tampering really spare him any suffering if she kept returning again and again? Or would it just make her feelguilty and unwhole, as if the most important part of her life had been missing for a really long time?

Trying to escape those questions, she tried to remember her childhood. She remembered playing with her sister Sarah and her stuffed unicorn. Her room at her parents' house so full of posters of her favorite bands and teddy bears, and her toy cyclops... Cyclops, Scott, Slim... Was he lying in bed sleepless like her or was he fast asleep in the arms of that woman? Did he love her the way he had loved her? Was she as understanding as she had been? She couldn't stand thinking about that anymore. Going back to the good old memories, that was the right idea.

Huge gren eyes and shiny black skin. Her black cat Prometheus. He had her been her best friend growing up, always caring and understanding, willing to spend time with her when everyone else had been busy. He had her green eyes, people used to say. She called him her baby and ironically enough, never had a baby of her own. They had always been too busy saving the world to have time for parenthood. Scott would have made such a wonderful father... and there she was again, heartbroken and back at the very beginning. Perhaps a different line of thought would help her sleep.

Jean remembered the time when she and Scott were happy together and they spent long hours chatting and laughing with Hank, Bobby and Warren. The sisterly love that was born between her and Ororo from the very beginning and the way she always had the perfect advice and made wonderful suggestions. She remembered countless training sessions at the Danger Room and her telekinetic exercises with the wooden board and yarn.

Or perhaps not, Jean told herself after a couple of hours of mentally reviewing the best moments of her life. Then, she finally got out of bed insomnia-striken and completely exhausted. She wandered around the house in the darkness. There was no need to turn the lights on. She knew the path to the kitchens by heart.

A glass of warm milk later, she still felt restless. Some nights, it was easier to trick herself to sleep. There were also nights like that, of course, where nothing seemed to work, no matter what she tried. She was tired of being tired, Jean thought. A different approach to her problem was definitely needed. The idea had been in her head for a long while, but she had never dared to give it a try. Jean wasn't one to try new things and the very idea of it scared the hell out of her. However, her self preservation instinct kept forcing her to try to find a way ouf of that hell.

The knock had been so soft, she wasn't sure he would hear it and yet, a moment later, he opened the door. Sleepy, unshaven and beyond surprised, Logan blinked at the implausible image that was Jean Grey standing at his door at three in the morning, wearing only a gauzy green night gown and a pair of pink slippers.

"Can I come in?" She asked in a barely audible, shaky voice. He had been dreaming of that moment for years but when he tried to answer, Logan found his mouth dry and his mind completely blank. That couldn't be happening. He was obviously dreaming, he told himself. She awaited for his reply, looking as scared as a weathered cat and feeling more and more discouraged with every passing second. "Logan?" He was looking at her with an expression she had never seen him in her life. Was he feeling vulnerable?

As he didn't react, Jean prepared to leave and moved to do so when Logan, still at a loss of words, opened his door a little wider hoping she would take the hint. She walked by him and stood in the middle of the room, not daring to sit on his bed for fear of invading his privacy. However, her curiosity was greater than her fear and she took a subtle look around. The place looked rather impersonal, except for an old framed picture where they stood together, smiling to the camera as good friends… friends, and now she was walking into his room in the middle of the night. What would he make of it? Most importantly, what were her own intentions when deciding to knock at his door at such an ungodly hour?

Logan closed the door and turned around to look at her. She looked so lost. Her floral scent invaded the room, preventing him from thinking straight, but he forced himself to remain calm, despite the fact that his heart was pounding loudly inside his chest. "Everything all right, Jeannine?" Stupid question, he told himself after he heard his voice ask it. She was so obviously not all right. "Please, sit down," he offered his only chair with a gesture of the hand and sat at the edge of his bed. Jean nodded and sat on the bed, beside him.

Hours later, the sky began getting clearer as dawn approached and Jean woke up startled. There was someone else with them in the room, a presence. She could see the blinding light even with her eyes closed and was also able to feel it growing stronger inside her. It was the Phoenix. She knew that and instinctively looked for Logan, who was fast asleep on his chair with his head against the wall. The Phoenix and her were all alone and no one would come to aid her.

"Jean Grey, I am the entity called Phoenix," the legendary bird told her. "I'm already serving you as host. What do you want?" Jean asked angrily as she knelt on bed, jer arms crossed defiantly. It wasn't everyday that she got a chance to talk to the 'person' responsible for her life being a complete mess.

"I come from a different time," it explained as if that would make everything clear for her. "Good for you. What do you want?" She repeated spitefully. "You have taken the right decision Jean Grey. You have chosen to let go of what cannot be," the fire bird continued to talk in a monotonous voice, indifferent to her hostility. "The human you call Logan is the smart partner choice, for he cannot die nor age and, in a way, neither can you for as long as I need you."

"If you've come here to give me sentimental advice…" she started to say in a warning voice, but the entity interrupted. "I've come here to make you an offer. I can see that I've done much damage to you by choosing this body as vessel." Jean felt like jumping on the Phoenix and make it pay for all the pain, but she knew it would be useless. "I'm listening," she said instead, her arms still crossed and her brow furrowed.

"I can't change what must be, but I can destroy and I can create. I can create a different universe for you, Jean Grey, as a way to compensate for all the grief I've put you through. I can give you a second chance to live your life with the mortal Scott Summers as it would have been if I hadn't interferred with the natural course of events." Jean was speechless.

"Your life in this reality will continue as if nothing had happend, but you would know that somewhere in another time and space, you got a second chance at a normal life. Does this atone for all the damage I've done to you, Jean Grey?" the bird asked blinking calmly, glowing like a fire ghost in the middle of the darkness. Jean thought about it for a moment, then said "It would," although she wasn't really sure about it, but what other choice did she have? Knowing that things were different in an alternate universe wasn't too comforting if you had to keep living in the same place as always, but it was surely better than the alternative. Right?

"Can… can you make me forget Scott?" she asked with difficulty, a knot in her throat preventing her from talking freely as her eyes quickly teared up. "Indiference will come in time, yes, but not by my hand. Go back to sleep now, Jean Grey. Goodbye," the bird said before it disappeared in a blinding fireball, leaving a sepulcral silence behind. "Yeah, like I'm gonna be able to sleep now," Jean whispered as she sat on the matress feeling like a neurotic mess once again.

A few nights later, Scott and Emma walked home holding hands after going to the movies. It was snowing, but in spite of that, they had decided to take a walk before seeking the warmth of the indoors. That had been her request. Emma loved the snow and spent all the time she could enjoying the cold weather with Scott.

He had been thoughtfully for a while, as if there was something worrying him and, when she mentioned it that night, he just said it was nothing. Jean would have respected his silence or even gotten him to talk by remaining quiet herself, but Emma wasn't so understanding. She kept asking and pushing for the answer she wanted so much, willing to probe his mind if he refused to humor her.

Scott had always had a strong defense against telepaths, so he didn't let her inside his head. There was something wrong abut that repetitive scenes he had been dreaming for a while, and he didn't want her finding out that he still dreamed about Jean after all what time. However, those dreams appearing completely out of the blue without any kind of provocation in real life, made him wonder whether there was something unusual going on.

The answer to his unformulated question came to him that dawn, when he was awoken by a presence in his room that seemed to shine like the sun itself. It was so intensely britht he could see it with his eyes closed. Amazed, he put on his ruby quartz shades and got out of bed. For a long moment, Scott stood by his bed, just looking at the luminiscent ball in awe, compeltely unable to move.

The light silently became fire and the fire took the shape of the mythological bird known by its ability to rise from its own ashes. Scott looked over his shoulder for Emma, who was still sleeping peacefully, as if nothing had happened. He tried to wake her up and called her name, but she didn't wake up.

After a couple of seconds, the bird spoke, regaining Cyclops's attention. The voice the presence had, filled the air, enchanting everything in the room, like a lullaby. It was said that the Phoenix's song could fill a person's heart with joy or sadness, depending on how close said person was to dead. In that moment, Scott felt at peace.

"I am the entity called Phoenix. You must not fear me, Scott Summers, for I am here to atone for the pain I have caused you. Once, I was in the need of a body to inhabit so I could protect the M'Kran Crystal and I took what was most precious for you, the human called Jean Grey. Now I have returned to compensate you for what I've done to your life, if such a thing can be done. There is something I can offer you: The chance of living the normal life, which I took away from both of you in my effort to protect the galaxy. The Jean Gray you knew is now death to the world, since the very precise moment I possessed her, but I can reproduce her body to use it whenever I need it. From the very moment we became one, none of us can exist without the other. That's why she still appears to be alive."

"What are you saying? That the Jean I've known for the past years was just a vessel? Nothing more than a shell you used as you saw fit?" "Precisely," the entity replied in its monotone voice. "That can't be true! What do you want from me? Don't you see I'm trying to let her go and go on?" he didn't realize he was yelling defiantly at her until it was too late, but Emma seemed to hear nothing for she was still curled up in bed, fast asleep.

"I offer you a new beginning, Scott Summers, the possibility to continue your life from the point I've interfered with the natural course of events, a different universe where the human Jean Grey never becomes the host body for the Phoenix. I offer a world where you don't feel a strange unexplainable grief in your chest every night when you hold that woman close to you." Scott looked at her with horror. "How do you know about that?" He demanded to know. "I told you: Jean and I are one. I was there when she modified your mind so you would stop loving her and would love that woman instead. That pain you feel every night is the consequence of the feeling implantation Jean has performed so you would stop suffering for something you can't have..."

"Jean… That… can't be true!" he denied vehemently. "Jean would never do something like that to me!" He insisted.

"What I can do, I can undo. I can create an entire new universe if I wish to do so. So… do you want a chance to right all the wrongs? Do you accept the amend I offer you, Scott Summers?"

"I…" He looked at Emma sleeping in their bed and then back to the fire bird. The decision was already taken.

~ O ~

Author's notes: Yep, there are quite a few new scenes. Isn't it great? It's like the Evangelion movies. Just the same old series with better graphics (in this case grammar) and some new material here and there to keep it interesting =)

I'm already working on polishing the second characer as well. I think this fic seriously deserves a renewal and I'm even going to explore the Jean/Logan relationship on a different (but related) fic for those interested. I've never been a Jean/Logan fan, so this could get interesting.


	2. The Decision

**The Decision**

"I…" his fist was strongly closed as the adrenaline ran through his body, knowing that whatever decision he may make in that moment, would change his future forever. "How dare you? I won't forgive you for tampering with my mind as if it was a thing you can tinker at will so you can have Jean for yourself! I know you're selfish but this..." he shook his head, trying to say too many things at once. "Have you ever come across the word 'unfair' in your quest for new experiences?" he asked her spitefully. "I've got the right to choose who I love, it's called free will! You're not supposed to interfere with it, you know!" Scott yelled at the Phoenix.

" The mind modification was her doing. It was her wish that you ceased to suffer. I was just there and have nothing to do with you and this human you call Emma. It's not me you should be angry with. I'm just trying to make it up to you for what I've done."

"What about all the grief you've brought to Jean's life? Do you think it was Jean who chose to ruin her life and future to forever serve as your vessel? And what the rest of our friends… are you not guilty of their pain as well?" "I'm trying to atone for that as well, yes." It said.

"The human you know as Jean Grey no longer exists as an independent life form and I take the blame for that, but the galaxy needed to be protected and as a leader, you know well that a single life is not worth the entire universe." He tightened his fists. Jean's life was worth a thousand universes to him, but the bird continued before he could protest. "That is why I am here tonight, to compose what I've destroyed." It explained. "You're a monster!" He accused the fire bird. "On the other hand, if you wish to continue with your life as you know it now, so be it" he didn't know how, but Scott just knew that the Phoenix was getting ready to disappear from his life forever, leaving him with that uncomfortable emptiness inside every time he was around Emma.

"No! Wait! I accept!" he shouted trying to stop the presence from leaving. "Take me to Jean! Do whatever you want to do to this world. I don't care! A world without Jean is not a world worth living in anymore."

The mythological animal stayed put and looked at Scott with its almond shaped eyes, made of the same fire as the rest of its body. A moment later, it started singing its song and, as it did, a barely human form appeared inside the its flaming, feathery chest. Scott startled when that happened, but couldn't take his eyes away from the process.

The fetus kept developing more and more every second, rapidly taking the form of a little girl, which soon began to transform into a red haired woman. Her body and factions looking more and more like Jean's. Scott had to admit it was an amazing thing to watch, the Phoenix reconstructing her body cell by cell from a single zygote.

When the growth spur finally ended, Jean's body appeared to be corporeous for the first time and stopped being just a translucent silhouette in the bird's interior. As she materialized progressively, both the fire and the bird surrounding her disappeared as a symbol that the amend was fulfilled.

Scott looked at the red-haired woman floating in front of him, apparently unaffected by gravity and wondered if she really was his Jean. It certainly looked like it, but with her eyes closed as they were, it was impossible for hi to tell. Not that Scott would have been able to see the amazing green color those eyes had with his ruby quartz glasses on, but he was sure he would have been able to know if it was really her by their expression.

Was she going to return with her memories untouched or would he have to breing her up to date and explain all the painful little details he didn't quite understand himself? He feared the answer to that question, but it seemed like a small price to pay for having her back, all to himself. No sharing with any entity or painful death and revival cycles. He would have a chance to see what their life together would have been like if the Phoenix had never existed, a thought that had kept him awake many nights in the past years.

He approached her slowly and took a good look at her beautiful features, unsure about what he was supposed to do to wake her up or, for that matter, if he was supposed to do anything at all. Jean seemed to be asleep, lying on a nonexistant bed that was too short and thin for her body, causing her head to lean backwards and her arms to fall out of it as well at her sides.

The Phoenix was gone as well as the suit she wore representing it but it took Scott several minutes to realize that she wasn't wearing anything at all. Despite all the things that they had lived together, he blushed deeply and, seconds later, she opened her eyes.

Jean stared at him, confusion written all over her face. She frowned at the huge effort that were recognizing the room around her and trying to remember how she had gotten there. Still glowing unnaturally, her body began to descend slowly to the floor while her hair floated around her like that of a ghost. Scott instinctively picked her up before she got to the floor and helped her stand on her own.

For a moment, she stood there like a real sized doll; motionless, with her arms hanging at both sides of her body and red locks of silky hair floating everywhere. She looked at Scott intently, as if the rest of the world didn't matter. Then the glowing slowly ceased and her fiery mane fell under the gravity's effects once more.

None of them spoke for an indefinite amount of time that stretched in front of them and that could have been just a few seconds or many years. After that, she blinked to break the spell and came back to life like a computer that has just finished loading the operative system.

She smiled at him warmly, as she realized what had just happened. Scott looked in her eyes, afraid of what he might find and recognized the love and tenderness he had been longing for. This was Jean. His Jean. He smiled back at her and she threw her arms around his neck.

Scott drew her closer by the waist, and joined her in a hug so tight it seemed as if their lives depended on it.

In the precise moment they touched, the room around them disappeared, along with everything and everyone in it. Emma was gone as well and a white light surrounded them as they were translated to a different universe. A happier one.

~ O ~

Author's note: This chapter was easier to edit than the previous one, thanks to the time my old friend Nightcrawler took to proof-read it for me. I haven't talked to him in at least two years and I really miss him. I hope that wheverer he is, he has found a woman worthy of his love and that the old wounds left by our despicable mutual friend are finally closed forever like mine.

Here's the original credits: I want to thank my friend Nightcrawler for giving me the courage I lacked to write this chapter and pointing out my mistakes. I also want to thank CykePhoenixSummers and Ororo Howlett for the reviews.


	3. Love & Pain

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**The Phoenix's Amend**

Scott has accepted the Phoenix's amend which granted a new life for him and Jean, but will things just recompose themselves after all the things that happened to both of them in between?

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**Love & Pain**

As the light grew stronger, their instinct made them hold each other as if their lives depended on it. Scott couldn't help hugging her when she appeared because with the mental feelings block gone; he didn't care about anything that had happened between them before, but only wanted to hold her in his arms. In her case, it was just a natural reaction to hug the man to whom she had been married for many years as she saw him, after she appeared in the middle of a strange room completely frightened and overwhelmed by emotions, not to mention, completely naked.

They both knew they'd have a lot to talk about after the first impressions had passed, but it was not the moment to be afraid of what was about to happen or could happen, since it was an entirely new chance to have a normal life, the life they always wanted, if what they used to have could be defined as 'normal'

The process seemed to take longer than he expected, but building an entire universe was not an easy thing to do. Even if done by an almighty entity such as the Phoenix, it would take some time, but a lot less than millions of years.

Scott could feel Jean trembling in his arms from the first moment they embraced, causing him to hold her tighter and caress her back to calm her down. As her former husband, he could imagine some of the things that worried her without being a telepath himself, but yet he could not understand how she felt, only worried by the fact he felt betrayed by her. Even though, they would have all the rest of their lives to talk about what had happened and what they wanted to do in the future, but in that moment none of them dared to break the silent spell that was taking place around the couple.

The X-Men felt some changes taking place in their bodies, as if they were suddenly becoming somehow younger, it was like the notion of having more firm body and clearer mind, but the wisdom acquired by them in all the years lived was still there, as well as all the memories. At the same time, the light started to fade and shapes started to appear around them. It took some time to reconstruct itself, like Jean's body did before, but after it was done, the now young couple stood in Jean's bedroom at the Mansion.

She opened her eyes as the blinding light finally disappeared and recognized the place, amused by the way it looked as he also did. The bedroom was decorated the way it used to be when she was much younger, before she married Scott and before the Phoenix possessed her but not much earlier than that, maybe a couple of weeks before she started feeling the symptoms. The next thing she looked at was Scott. She looked at his face and winced, taking a step back out of his embrace, but with her hands still holding his forearms.

"Scott!" she said not finding the words to express all the things that she felt and feared. "I'm sorry…" The only thing that came out was that empty apology while she lowered her eyes as she said that.

"You're sorry…" he repeated evaluating her, with a crescent pain in his chest as he remembered the fact that she modified his mind. An uncomfortable silence was broken by him. "I trusted you, Jean"

Those words hurt her more than any physical pain, what was reflected in her face as her eyes became watery. She loved him and had scarified everything she had always wished for saving him the suffering she was doomed to bring him. And now he was accusing her as if she had done that horrible thin selfishly. It was true that she betrayed his trust, but she had her reasons.

Tears started falling from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as that silence continued and her arms fell from his forearms to the sides of Jean's body. He was not going to say anything else and she, as a telepath, knew it. It was up to her to find a way to make him understand, yet she was still unable to find the right words to express what she wanted.

"I… was trying to help you let go of a person doomed to die and be reborn forever… I only could bring you suffering, Scott. I wanted something better for you because I love you, but how was I supposed to make you happy with another being with its own will inside me? You have not idea of what it feels like to share your body with someone so powerful that could destroy an entire galaxy just for pleasure or would take you away from all that is loved by you to save a universe you have never heard about…" she bit her lower lip and rocked her head slowly as tears kept on flowing like a small fall.

"Well… we could have talked it over, you could have asked me what I wanted, and perhaps…"the recrimination in his voice was evident and he was speaking really fast as he always did when nervous. "…who knows, perhaps I would have rejected Emma if you would have let me do so… perhaps I was willing to take my chances and try to be happy with you even if we were tore apart sometimes by the Phoenix. You would always come back anyways." said finally, angry and hurt at the same time. Even if he was angry with her, he loved that woman and hated to argue, especially with Jean. Another pause took place in their conversation before Scott talked again.

"I realize now that it was a mistake… I hope you can forgive me someday, Scott." She said lowering her voice before drying her eyes and cheeks with her hands. "I love you…" added in a whisper, not crying anymore, but still looking heartbroken.

Scott opened his mouth to reply but in that moment the door in front of which they had been standing opened and a surprised pair of women, Ororo and Rogue, stood there amused, looking at the strangest view ever: an angry Scott and a naked Jean who still looked depressed. It was a second before Hank joined the ladies at the door having his usually serious face showing concern.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Well this was a rather difficult to write chapter since I ran out of inspiration after ending the 2nd. But as inspiration came, I was able to continue writing. I also corrected the mistakes in the first two chapters. Thanks to CykePhoenixSummers and OrororHowlett for pointing them up for me. 

I also want to thank Stinkabhel for the inspiring review that gave me the strength and will to continue writing along with inspiration to find how to continue the story, since I was in a slump.

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	4. Thoughts that Lead to Sorrow

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**

The Phoenix's Amend

Scott accepted the Phoenix's amend and he was rejuvenated and transported by a light along with Jean, appearing both in the room she occupied at Xavier's mansion before the mythological animal possessed her.

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**Thoughts that Lead to Sorrow**

They both froze as the door opened, completely blushed with embarrassment and wishing they would have left the argument for later on and spent those minutes they had alone getting Jean some clothes from her wardrobe, but it was late for that and two pairs of eyes were fixed in the door. Then, emerald met ruby as the looked at each other trying to find a way out that situation.

Jean's mind, always working fast and efficient as a piece of Swiss clockwork, quickly set holographic clothes that appeared on her body as she closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. With that, she would not need to worry about covering her figure with her hands. The embarrassment was huge as to look at the three people standing at the door, so she kept her gaze aiming at the floor.

"We did not mean to interrupt" Beast said apologizing for the interruption and turning his face away so that he would not be disrespectful to her teammate by looking at her in that condition. Yet he remained there standing in the corridor out of curiosity. He wanted to hear and make sure that everything was ok.

"Yah better start fixin' to talk real quick, sugah, I ain't never lettin' you do nothin' to Jean" Rouge said rudely breaking the ice as she stepped into the room, worried by the sad expression and the trail of tears on her usually happy friend's face.

After Marvel Girl's clothes appeared, Storm entered the dorm too and placed a warm friendly hand on Jean's shoulder as she examined her face with a concerned look in her own.

"Jean, are you all right? What happened, my friend?" Ororo asked eagerly to the red-haired woman. Outside, the sky turned cloudy as the Egyptian's concern developed.

Scott's mood was bad enough as to stay there enduring his mate's disapproval looks and comments as if he had done anything wrong! He was the one who should be comforted, he thought. He wasn't the one who modified someone else's mind without even asking! He hated the fact that if there was a crying woman next to a man, everybody would assume the crying was the man's fault… and then they said it was a male-centered world! Cyclops felt he was going to yell or hit whoever dared to talk to him; he had to leave that room until things were calmer. He looked at Jean once more.

"How am I supposed to trust you after what you have done? You've disappointed me, Jean." The words just flowed out of his mouth before he left the room with a serious severe expression and walked away through the corridor, ignoring Hank's attempts to call his attention or talk it over. Yet, the blue guy followed Scott to Cyclops's dorm, where he locked himself, claming that he wanted to be alone.

As he walked away from her, Jean got a flash of Scott's thoughts and what she heard there was not encouraging her to feel better.

"_I've been sleeping by her side all of those years, who knows how many times she might have manipulated my mind so I would do whatever she wanted or even be with her… Why not? I have always been eager to grant all of her wishes and I always did anything for her, even the most unbelievable things, how else could someone explain that? And then, as she got tired of me, she attached me to someone else and everything solved…I can't forgive that…"_

Perhaps having a second chance to be with her and still loving her did not imply that he would stop feeling betrayed and hurt. Perhaps there was no way to fix what had been broken, especially if one of the parts could not even know if he really loved the other one or was just brainwashed to do so.

Jean understood that for a person with no telepathic abilities, the paranoia about being manipulated by a mutant that had that gift was almost a natural thing, but her own husband doubting about his feelings towards her was an idea too painful to assimilate. The fact was she did make him fond of Emma betraying his trust, she had to give him that, but yet, she couldn't understand why he accepted the Phoenix's amend if he was going to make her scenes like that… revenge perhaps? She preferred to stop thinking for a while, in order to avoid getting a headache.

Before Slim completely left the room, Storm tried to stop him, but Ms Grey stopped her telepathically.

Jean just shocked her head slightly, still looking downwards. "It's ok Ro, let him go."

"Are you sure?" the white haired one asked unsure about resigning the idea of chasing after Scott. Jean nodded.

"He's right, Storm. I really screwed it up and betrayed his trust" said starting to cry again. _"Yet he's overreacting and being selfish…"_ She had to talk to the Professor, but her story was really difficult to believe, even for someone like the Professor. One of her hands rose to her face and slid down, as if it would clear her mind. The feeling of a horrid migraine could be felt by her at her temples since she appeared to fail at preventing the pain from starting.

Marvel Girl felt she was about to faint as the feelings and the incipient headache overwhelmed her, so she sent a telepathic request for help directed to nobody in particular.

"He don't look no happy with yah" Rogue asked also coming closer to her when she noticed her friend's skin becoming paler. "Wha' happen', sugah?"

Ororo made Rogue a gesture over Jean's shoulder indicating that it would be better if she stopped questioning Redd about the argument and the southern girl nodded in agreement.

In that moment, any attempt of conversation was stopped by the telepathic announcement made by Professor Xavier.

"_Professor Xavier to all the students, please report to the control room in your uniforms immediately"_

The question in everybody's mind was the same old question for those who lived at the School for Gifted Youngsters in Winchester, New York "Oh… and now what?"

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Thanks to Stinkhabel, IluvJott and CykePhoenixSummers for the wonderful reviews and for making me keep on writing as well as supporting me on this fic that started as a personal daydream. 

I want to thank too to my personal Cyke for making this weekend magic after all we've been through lately. We'll raise from our ashes just like the Phoenix, my love. I promise.

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Note of the Author: I know this chapter might be perhaps less interesting than the previous one, but It was all I could come up with to connect the 3rd chapter with the ideas I got for the next ones. I also had to investigate a lot about Southern American English so I could characterize Rogue better, but English is not my mother language, so if you find that there's any correction I should do to her speech or the fic in general, please let me know. Hope you liked it anyway.

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	5. Revealing the Truth

**

* * *

**

The Phoenix's Amend

After accepting the Phoenix's Amend, Scott feels Jean has betrayed his trust by modifying his mind and started arguing with her, to later lock himself up in his room as they were interrupted.

* * *

**Revealing the Truth**

"You get going, girls. I'll join you as soon as I get dressed, ok?" Jean asked more as a favor than a suggestion or an order. She wanted a few seconds to be alone and reorganize her thoughts coherently after all that happened to her recently, from the very first moment she was told by the Phoenix about that second chance plan, to the moment she was found in that uncomfortable situation.

"Sure" Her best friend Ororo understood the implicit words in her friend's green eyes and nodded before leaving, taking Rogue with her.

"See yah later, sugah" added the other girl before leaving the room as well, forgetting to close the door behind her.

Jean telekinetically closed her dorm's door and after that, the hologram of her clothes disappeared as she walked to her wardrobe to put on her uniform slowly, as her migraine started to grow stronger. When she was ready finishing putting on her boots, she rose from the chair she had been sitting at and stood unstable on her feet for a few seconds before collapsing to the floor, unconscious.

* * *

She woke up in a room that was familiar to her. It was her room and her bed, but not her house, but the Professor's mansion and Xavier himself was sitting next to her bed, silently reading a book at an amazing speed while waiting for her to wake up and caressing his cat Mystique.+ 

"_How do you feel, Jean?"_ the Professor asked her telepathically, leaving the book on his lap and looking at her, slightly smiling.

She sat leaning her back against the headboard and noticed she was still wearing her suit, but her boots were resting on the floor beside her bed. The girl took her time to answer, as if she were remembering many things and putting some order to her thoughts.

_"I'm fine, Professor, but I'm also a bit…"_ She didn't want to talk to him about what happened because she didn't want the only person who treated her as a human to also catalogue her as a mad woman and returned her to the psychiatrist institution.

"_Scared?" _Xavier asked already knowing the answer she was trying to hide in the depths of her mind.

"…_Concerned" _Rectified Jean trying to decide whether to tell him what happened or not.

"_You're not the only telepath here, Jean. You don't need to talk for me to know there's something worrying you."_ He said in his usual, calm voice.

"_Professor, this might sound unbelievable, that's why…"_ she replied blushing embarrassed for being reticent to tell the truth to her mentor, the one that took her in and help her learn how to control her gift, the one who never gave her a reason not to trust him, the one she was afraid to trust right now.

"_I believe you, Jean. You're not the kind of person who lies… plus I would know if you did"_ a slightly smirkish smile appeared in his face that later turned into a normal warm smile.

"_You mean you know what happened to Scott and I?"_ her nervousness was evident even in her mental tone of voice.

"_I received your psychical help signal and when you fainted I checked your memories in order to know what happened to you. Ororo told me you looked not good"_ the Professor said as if he was explaining a simple thing such as the sum of two and two.

Once again her cheeks became crimson red as she remembered that uncomfortable moment and the idea of a serious man like the Professor knowing about that scene made her really embarrassed. Then she remembered Scott and her natural curiosity awoke.

"_How's Scott?" _She thought and would have liked to ask so, but instead of that, she reordered her priorities after remembering her duties and sent him telepathically _"What happened? What was that emergency meeting for?"_

"_They had flown to Washington to stop a terrorist group_" came his reply at once, but still lacking of nervousness _"By the way, he's still locked up at his dorm; he wouldn't let me in… It shall pass" _the mentor added to what he had previously said, answering her unformulated question matter-of-factly.

Jean nodded. _"It's understandable. I shouldn't have… What would you have done in my place, Professor?"_ asked hoping his guidance would show her the right path once more in her life as he did many times before.

He smiled a bit. _"You know I'm not the one to judge you, Jean. A person such as myself who never succeeded in a relationship is no the best person to ask" _She seemed a bit disappointed by that answer.

"_But you're the only telepath I can ask…"_ was her rebuttal.

"_Then I guess you'll have to find it out by yourself. You're the most mature and well-centered of my students, I believe you should be able to answer that yourself, but perhaps it is your own answer what you're not comfortable with…"_

The way the Professor could tell you that kind of things calmly and not sounding proud or scolding was unique. All the words he said always sounded like a good friend's advice to her, he never treated her as if she were inferior or naïve or a little girl, with Xavier every student was treated as an equal.

A silence appeared between them in which none said anything, but they were both thinking about their own troubles. Finally, she broke it.

"Thank you for your advice, Professor" a smile accompanied the phrase, this time spoken.

He nodded and smiled "Anytime" His wheeling chair was moved by him and Mystique meowed complaining for the sudden change of her status-quo in his shoulder.

Only in that moment, she saw the clock in the wall and became aware of the time, it was noon already, and it seemed she had been sleeping for a couple of hours.

"It's almost lunchtime, Professor, and I'm feeling ok already, let me make us something to eat" the red-haired girl, who now looked around twenty two or so, offered to take car of that.

"I'll really appreciate it, Jean. I've got some things to take care of" he stated as he left the room.

"_Oh! And, Jean. I wouldn't mention that alternate future if I were you, unless I were looking forward to having all the X-Men harassing me with questions about what their lives could have become"_ he suggested from outside the room.

* * *

It was a quiet lunch with only her and Charles in the mansion's kitchen,for it was pointless to set the dinning room only for the two of them, since Scott never showed himself at the kitchen and refused to go out when the Professor had asked him telepathically. 

After that was over, she placed some sandwiches in a trail as well as something to drink and a couple of napkins before heading for Cyclops' dorm after she changed clothes into a more casual outfit, a pair of low-cut jeans and a black shirt. She felt it had been ages since she last wore those clothes.

Jean didn't care about him hurting her or not taking into account all the things she had been through. She loved him and to a woman in that state, things such as pain or pride doesn't matter, at least not as a priority, but to him, that seemed to be a major issue.

Those thoughts crossed her mind as she walked the corridor to his room. As she got closer, she could see that the door was slightly open. She stopped walking, not really sure about going into the room. It was not her intention to press him or make things even worse than they were already.

It took her several seconds to gather courage and when she finally did, Jean walked to the door until she was In front of it.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

Thanks to Alice chan and Nightcrawler for being my co-readers (also my great friends) and helping me find out mistakes and also giving me great ideas for the fic. They're inspiring even though they probably don't know it. Love you both guys! 

I know the cat is from the ultimate universe, but hey! It's my fic and I definitely love cats, so let me have my cat, ne? Pleeeeease+puppy face+

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	6. When Love is not Enough

**

* * *

**

The Phoenix's Amend

After arriving at their new reality, Cyclops and Marvel Girl had an argument, then Professor X called them for a meeting and Miss Grey blacked out. When Jean woke up after fainting, she went to Scott's dorm to talk to him.

* * *

**When Love is not Enough**

Jean raised her hand and knocked the door. No reply. She was afraid of entering the room or using her powers, since invading his privacy in any way now that he was so sensitive about the subject, wouldn't be the best way to convince him to see her not as a mutant who abused of her gifts for her own benefit, but as a woman who made a mistake for love, trying to take the best decision, and wanted to apologize.

"Scott?" She called as she knocked the door once more. Not even a single sound came from the inside. "Cyclops, come on, open the door, you must be hungry" she tried again and sighed. "Scott, you're acting like a teenager girl, have you realized that? Come on!" but as the room remained silent, she decided to peer in and so she did.

There was nobody in the room, but his stuff was still there and she found the bed untied. _"So he is not planning to leave the mansion… yet"_ Jean thought. She had decided not to use her powers to solve that, after all, it was precisely that what got her into that argument in the first place. She'd have to look for him the way normal people did.

Sighing again, she entered the room and left the tray on Scott's bed, so he could eat something whenever he returned to his room. After leaving the room and closing the door, she thought she needed some relaxation and headed for the recreation room which was a quiet nice place she liked to go to when she needed to think about something or being alone. In addition, it was the furthest place in the mansion from the danger room and knowing Cyke, he would probably be there releasing his anger against the simulations after being depressed for a while, locked up in his room away from the world as he had already done before that day.

She found the recreation room empty as usual, the old billiard table resting in the center, the mini-bar closed, the T.V. off as well as the CD player, and her favorite sofas in the entire mansion completely empty. It looked like an abandoned room, except for the fact that the furniture and floor were not covered in dust.

That sight of quietness relaxed her a bit and it was a matter of seconds before she had laid herself down in one of them where she soon felt sleepy. It probably was due to the poor lighting of the room and the comfy position plus the fact that she had her eyes closed, but it felt as if that familiar place were singing a lullaby to her and she felt tempted to fall asleep once more, if blacking out counted as sleeping.

Then she realized it was not the room who was singing, but Cyclops, who had entered the room with God knew what intention and was singing an old lullaby she recognized as the one he told her once he would sing to their children someday.

Scott seemed not to have seen her yet, focused as he was on turning on the radio and sitting on a sofa to relax, maybe. His presence awoke her, and returned Jean to her nervous state, even though the billiard table was hiding her from his view. Perhaps he was there to avoid her, for it would be much more like her to be at the gardens or even shopping at the mall when depressed.

* * *

Some minutes passed and she started to relax a bit, since he had not given any signs of noticing her yet and kept on singing old songs the radio played. Meanwhile, Marvel Girl wished she could see him to know what he was doing and what the expression was in his face, but she dared not to move.

"_I wish we could talk like the pair of mature grown ups we're supposed to be, but it's so difficult to talk to someone who's stubborn and reacts like a teenager"_ She thought as her mind started to give the whole situation a second thought.

"_Scott's being unreasonable, if he would just understand all I've been through! I've destroyed worlds and seen the pain in the eyes of those I love, and was not able to have a normal life…"_ That word sounded ironic in her situation as a mutant, and a bitter sarcastic smile appeared in her face as she kept on thinking. _"'Normal' that's relative, of course, but I liked my life as much as he liked his…"_ Then she realized what she had just said and understood a few things. Her view changed.

"_I haven't thought about it that way before, I guess that's why I understand how it feels to be forced to have a way of life you've not chosen, yet he was not aware of it, actually he seemed to enjoy it pretty much…"_ Jealousy started to fill a part of her heart as she remembered Scott and Emma in bed.

"_But I… I was aware of what I was doing and still unable to avoid doing it. I did not enjoy what Phoenix did, I loathed it and it made me suffer… He can't just turn himself into a victim when I've been the one who's suffered the most."_ She started to feel a bit angry since she felt she had been accused unfairly by Scott, but she also knew both of them being angry wouldn't help sorting things out. It would only mess it even more. One of them had to give up pride and forgive first.

* * *

As another half an hour later while Jean kept on thinking and he was still singing there. She started willing to get out of the room and do something productive. There was no point in torturing herself by staying in the same room with him, thinking of all the things she could tell him and not doing so, but revealing her presence did not seemed the best thing to do in that moment.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Scott standing up and, so she decided to pretend being asleep and closed her eyes, waiting for him to do whatever he may and hoping he wouldn't notice her. She wanted to avoid any further argument if she could… her heart was running really fast.

Scott headed for the window behind the couch where Jean was, hoping to catch a glimpse of her wife… _"She's not my wife anymore…"_ in the garden. He always went to the recreation room to spy her in her favorite spot of the grounds whenever he knew she would be out there. His surprise when he saw her laying there, asleep in the sofa was so huge that he almost jumped.

Alarmed, he tested if she was awake by passing a hand in front of her eyes repeatedly, but she was a telepath and who better than her to pretend something? Then he felt more confident and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, still testing her. As he could see no reaction, he slowly and carefully sat by her side in the border of the couch that her slender body was not occupying.

By that moment, Jean could feel him sitting next to her and that gave her peace, as if they were still happily married and she were just taking a nap. In her mind, she knew it was not the way she was supposed to feel while they still were angry with each other and especially since she had been mad at him until a couple of seconds before…

"_He's always a child, in the good things like being naïve, sweet, fair and loyal as well as the bad ones like this morning when he was selfish, irrational and immature. If I want this to be solved I'll have to be the one to give up my pride"_ she thought still trying not to reflex any emotion in her face. That became harder after she felt his hand on her cheek. She missed him and felt the need to hug him, despite their previous argument and the jealousy she felt when she saw him with Emma, even though that union had been her doing.

"You look so beautiful when you're asleep I almost forgot why I was angry at you…" He said in a soft voice, more to himself than to her, not being able to keep those thoughts just as that and making them audible. "I wonder if we're destined to never be happy together no matter of the time, space or reality we live in…" Scott sighed as he caressed her cheek again. "I just wanted to live with you and make you happy. Why every time we try either of us has to ruin it?" he asked to the red-haired woman on the couch.

"Oh, and that in case outsider factors hadn't intervene before we have enough time to spoil it ourselves" Added a couple of seconds later, feeling confident enough as to rise his voice a little. "I know this time it was you, by manipulating my mind which is not comparable at all with your strong psychic, who broke my confidence in you, but you have to admit I still have the record of screwing things between us" added with a bitter smile in his lips. He softly moved some of her fire hair away from her beautiful face.

While talking, he had been looking at her and occasionally caressing her cheek, but he couldn't resist the woman he had always been in love with anymore and leaned down to softly kiss her lips, taking care not to awake the woman who was just as awake as himself.

She could tell by his movement and the shadow which covered her face at that moment that he was making his face closer to hers, as if to kiss her. Jean didn't know what to do. She really wanted him to kiss her, but she felt guilty enough as to trick him to kiss her. In the other hand, she already was in trouble for pretending to be asleep, so she decided to make it fair. If he believed she was asleep she would.

After all that thoughts crossed her mind in a fraction of second, she used her mental powers to make herself asleep a few seconds before he actually kissed her.

It was a soft almost pure kiss. His lips rested in hers for just a second before Scott's face got some inches away from Jean's. Even though she was not deeply asleep, she didn't wake up so he stared at her in silence a little longer before even thinking of waking her up.

Perhaps staring at her was disturbing his judgment, for he couldn't feel really angry with a Jean who was peacefully asleep and wouldn't reply to him. In that moment, he felt there still might be hope for them and it started to burn him. He couldn't wait until she woke up; he had to talk to her in that moment.

He placed her hand on her cheek and called her name, trying not to shock her. It was really easy for him to wake her up, but even those few moments asleep were enough for her to get confused after opening her eyes.

"Scott…" She said in a soft voice, fearing what the incoming conversation would result in, yet she couldn't let him make her the guilty one and then calm down and try to make it up with her, just like that, so Jean made a pause before starting to talk to him, before he decided to run away from her or could make up an excuse to avoid that conversation any further. "I think you've been unfair to me this morning... Try to think of you in my shoes… I've suffered too." She said with a puppy-face expression in her face, to soften the words she was saying and that way not sounding so aggressive.

"But I…" he couldn't finish his sentence, for she started speaking again.

"I know you've also been through a lot, I'm not saying you've not, Scott, but is not like you to be selfish. I've made a mistake, everybody does them, but I'm really sorry about it and I regret what I did to your mind." She made a small pause and he did not dare to interrupt this time.

"That was betraying your trust, I'm aware of that now, yet back then I was not able to think clearly while sharing my body and mind with another being as possessive as the Phoenix force and still that's no excuse for what I've done." Miss Grey sighed.

"So, what do you want me to do now? You want me to forget everything? How can I know you didn't make me like you from the very beginning?" Her face showed sadness again as her eyes became shiny.

"I didn't, Scott you know me, I wouldn't do that. I've made a mistake with Emma, I've told you that already!" a couple of tears rolled down her cheeks and then she herd part of the lyrics of the song that the radio was playing in that moment.

"_We never cry for love, we're superheroes. We are back where we belong."_ Tobias Sammet sang. _"We never cry for pain, we're superheroes. Make a stand where we belong"_ then she realized she had been silent for a while listening to that and looked up at Scott again.

She could tell by the look in his eyes that he had listened to that too, and they shared a small sad smile before remembering what they were talking about.

"You know… it completely broke my heart to see you with Emma, but I thought it would be the best for you…"

"Well you were mistaken, Jean. I didn't care waiting for you to return or being apart from you for a while as long as we kept on fighting for our love as we had always done!" That made her mad. She had already apologized more than once, what else did he want her to do?

"Try to remember what it was like, Scott. You were fighting AGAINST me, arguing because of every single thing I said since you came back after what happened with Apocalypse. I did not know what else to do, I made a mistake and I've paid for it already until I really regretted it, even apologized to you several times…"

"Am I supposed to forget everything and just trust again after my own wife had betrayed me?"

"Just answer me one thing. If you're so determined not to trust or forgive me, why did you accepted the Phoenix's amend, Scott?" She was looking into his eyes with her shiny green ones.

"Because I love you" came his reply, but his tone of voice was fast and dry, everything but romantic.

"I love you too, and that hasn't prevented us to argue since we met again." Her voice, in the other hand, was not angry, but hurt.

"Perhaps sometimes love is not enough to make two people's differences disappear" he added bitterly.

"Yeah, maybe you're right, love doesn't assure you that you're getting along with someone else, and in the better of cases it makes it just more probable" se agreed resigned.

An uncomfortable silence grew between them while her tears kept on rolling and he fought his own feelings to keep on 'being a man' as Logan usually said. It lasted another song before Jean broke it in a barely audible voice.

"Professor always said that anger only destructs things and he's always the first one to forgive whoever had attacked us if he or she is really sorry about it. This chance that has been given to us…you accepted it. What for? Are you, the Professor's best student not going to follow his example and remain rancorous against the woman you married which had always admired you as a godlike figure just because she made a mistake?"

After hearing about the Professor, he knew she was right and had a point, but for that reason, Cyclops did not dare to look at her face, just kept on listening, while trying to think it over. As a leader, he was not the kind of man who gladly admitted he was wrong or had to change an attitude, just Xavier would get such a reaction from him.

"Hadn't you ever made a mistake, Scott? Did I ever not forgive you?"

Then he forced himself to look at her, but he was so tense that could not speak yet and was biting his lip hard enough to make him bleed a bit, but by the way he looked at her, he had certainly made his mind.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Hi people! Thanks for keep on reading me, to Stinkhabel for her review and to Alice chan for the inspiration. She's been great to me lately!

I'm glad I was finally able to write this chapter and you should know it breaks my heart to see those two arguing so it was a difficult thing to do, but I had to do it.

See ya in the next chapter!

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	7. My Soul For You

**The Phoenix's Amend**

Jean and Scout finally managed to talk about their argument, but instead of solving it, they had arrived to the conclusion that even though they loved each other, sometimes it takes more than love to get along with someone.

**My Soul for You**

It was her who had to look away that time and, as she predicted, it was up to her to solve the problem by leaving her pride apart or decide to keep that circus going on and satisfy her ego. Jean Sighed. Sometimes it takes time to heal a wound and only that can cure it.

"Let's not rush things. Nothing is gonna work just because we force it to do so" she admitted, beginning to see his point not needing to see his mind for that. "I won't ask you to trust me again, Scott, don't worry about that." _"I can think clearly now… trust is something you have to earn, it can't just be given… how could I have forgotten it?" _She said standing up after she sat on the couch at some point of their previous conversation.

"Jean…" He said looking her rise then she leaned to kiss him in the forehead. _"I love you" _Jean thought "Thanks for the good times, Slim" she said smiling bitterly before she started walking towards the door trying to hold her emotions until she was out of reach for him to notice. He knew her as well as he knew himself though, so the whole thing was really pointless.

He wanted to say something, anything, but he was not good at talking, and just couldn't think about anything to tell her in that moment. She was almost reaching the door when he saw her leaving and felt he was loosing her forever. Scott stood before dashing to her and held her by the waist, moved by a thousand emotions.

"Wait… Jean…" but he couldn't get other words, coherent words, to come out of his mouth, so he did the only thing he could do to retain her, the thing he was dieing to do since he had gotten her back, he kissed her. She closed her eyes as they kissed, causing a single solitaire tear to fall down her cheek, expulsed by her eyelid closing.

It didn't last long, but they both felt as if their entire existences would have been only meant to exist so that they could make that single kiss happen. As they parted, the magic that had been surrounding them seemed to disappear vanishing into thin air.

"Let the time heal the wounds" she whispered into his ear since they still remained holding each other. "I'll be a good girl, I promise" she said with her composure regained and a ten years old's face as she let him go. Then winked and smiled to him before leaving the room. Her wounds would also need some time to be fixed.

A couple of weeks later, the morning sun rays bathed the room as they entered through the window. Scott was awoken by his clock. It was not 6am as usual, but still pretty early for a weekend and yet, he had to get ready to meet Professor at his desk in half an hour. There was no time for breakfast, the old man had advised him the night before as he was programming the meeting, so he rose from bed, brushed his teeth, took a shower and got himself ready. The morning exercises would have to wait.

What he ignored, was the fact that he was not the only one supposed to meet Xavier at his office, but some red-haired woman he knew was too. As the moment came, Scott arrived at Professor's office just to find Jean at the door, knocking it.

"No reply" she told him as she saw Cyclops coming. "Are you looking for the Professor too?" Jean asked conversationally, yet there was still a tense atmosphere between them as there had been since that conversation near the pool table. He nodded, not giving any information about the meeting he and Charles were supposed to have.

In that moment, the telepathic voice of Xavier could be heard by both of them as clear as pure water. _"I'm in the Danger Room, sorry to keep you waiting"_

They looked at each other, as if they were looking for confirmation about the message being meant to be received by both of them, then she moved her head to a side, inviting him to join her in the walk to the Danger Room. He nodded and followed her, not being able to avoid noticing that lovely figure of hers. They were like that, there was no need of telepathy to know what the other one was thinking or tried to mean by a gesture, having been married for so long as they had been.

When they entered the Danger Room, no simulation was playing, so it looked just like a huge empty room with metal walls, floor and ceiling. The Professor was waiting for them a couple of meters away from the entrance doors instead of the Control Room which usually was his place during simulations.

Before any of them could say a single word, it was Charles who spoke first, leaving them no choice but listening to what seemed to be the beginning of a lecture, at least, that was what his attitude, face and tone of voice indicated to those who knew him.

"I'm glad to see both of you made it in time"

"Professor…" Scott failed to interrupt him.

"Look, Scott. I don't know what happens between the two of you" he lied "but both of you should be aware by now that it is affecting the whole team." The look in both of their faces was the same: shame.

"Professor…" he tried once more.

"I'm disappointed, Scott" which was pretty unnecessary to remark to those who were looking at his face at that moment, for it was so evident. Slim winced at the comment and Jean remained respectfully silent. "Yesterday, for example. We needed two groups, inside and outside the station and you knew your group was going to need a psychic… in fact, the whole point of the mission was having a psychic in the main rescue team if we wanted them not to notice that somebody had been there. But of course you thought that avoiding possible uncomfortable moments with Jean was more important than rescuing Double."

"I'm sorry" Cyclops said barely hearable as he lowered his head, but it was still not clear whether he was apologizing to Jean or the Professor.

"You're my brightest students, and you know I have always loved you as my son and daughter" his voice softened a little for a couple of seconds before becoming icy again. "But you must understand you have responsibilities and that while another mutant's life is at stake, you must forget about your personal differences to work together." They though

"It won't happen again, Professor" he assured firmly, with his hand made a fist.

"I'm sure it won't, that's why you're here. You're going to England in ten days; you've got a lot of training to do."

"WHAT!?" he asked with Jean seconding him but without yelling. She had always been calmer than he was. "But Professor…" the man in the wheeling chair raised a hand to make him silent.

"Since Double has been transferred to England due to your attempt to kidnap her, or so thinks the government, I thought that it would be best if you were the ones to rescue her before it's too late. You know they're not going to study her much longer before they get tired and get rid of her" he nodded.

"Professor…" Jean talked for the first time, using her musical voice that could soften even the coldest heart. "What are we exactly training for? I mean we have been to thousand rescue missions before. What's different about that girl? You never told us what her mutation was." She exposed eloquently and that made Xavier smile weakly.

"Yesterday, you were supposed to take her out of the lab where they had her locked and bring her here in the sedated state the scientists had put her two weeks ago, but as her health has already been checked, after she's transferred to England for further study of her mutant powers, how long do you think they're going to be able to study her mutation with her asleep?" Scott gave him a significant look. "The main problem with this girl is that she's been mistreated her whole life, so she doesn't trust anyone and as she will wake up to find herself being an experiment subject, she will be scared and probably mad at the world too. You know a scared mutant probably won't understand reasons such as you trying to help her, specially this one."

"What's so special about her?" Cyke asked.

"Her parents had her locked down at the basement since they realized she was a mutant and down there she was treated like an animal. Of course her mutation is going to be a problem too if she becomes aggressive."

"But what's her power, Professor?" It was her who spoke that time.

"She can make a clone of herself appear near her as long as she sees the place or even somewhere she's not seeing if she's been there before long enough as to know the room."

"We've dealt with cloners before, Professor. Even multiple cloners…" the bald man raised his hand again and his student became silent.

"The special thing about this girl is that even if she can only make a single clone of herself, they both move exactly the same at the same time, as if it was just a projection of her body, but if you hold one of them, the other one can still move freely as long as she's conscious, for she manipulates it with her mind. It's like having twins who make the exact same movements all the time but once caught they become independent."

"I see…" Redd commented.

"So you think the government is going to use her for some inconvenient purpose?" Scott asked.

"That too, but as I can understand her potential as well as you do, it would be preferable for national security that she joins us before somebody else recruits her" no further explanations were needed on that matter. "Do you understand now, Scott? It's not my will to send you get her as a punishment, but I've seen you work together for ages and you have a special connection, you don't need to speak or look at each other to coordinate, you just do. It's been like that since you started training here and no other pair is as synchronized as you are. That's why nobody else can do it. If things go wrong only you would be able to neutralize her."

"I understand" said Scott as Jean nodded.

"Good. Then let's talk about your training."

"But you said…"

"I said that you have been avoiding each other and I need you as tuned as a Swiss clock, so from now on and until your travel, I want you to sleep together, eat together, brush your teeth together, run together, and train together. You have to act and think as one. Understood"

"Yes Professor" they both replied, not doing so on purpose. The Professor smiled.

"That's the idea; I think you got the point." He sped his chair and passed between the two of them with Mystique sleeping in his lap, but he stopped before leaving. "Oh and, Jean…" She turned to see his back. "You can't avoid using your telepathy with Scott forever and you know it. You are gonna need it." She winced at those simple words as if she had treated her as hardly as he did to Cyclops before, but they have hurt her as deep as the lecture did to him, and Xavier knew it.

After that last piece of advice, he left the Danger Room, leaving them alone in there to meditate about what they had just been told, with the huge empty dull room around them amplifying the sensation of being insignificant they felt in that moment.

As the heavy doors closed, they looked at each other uncomfortably, more because of the fact that the other one had heard what the Professor had criticize from them than because of being there alone or the infamous conversation they had that afternoon. They were like two little kids being caught in the middle of a mischief and then left in the corner to think.

"So, your room or mine?" Jean asked to ease the heavy atmosphere.

"What!?"

"Just kidding" she said forcing herself to smile in spite of the embarrassment she felt because of the Professor's comment.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Notes: I know this chapter is shorter than the previous one, and that it took me forever to get inspired, but I like the way this chapter turned out. I want to thank to the people who follows my fic for it. I'll try to update more often.


	8. Phoenix Love Never Dies

Another argument with my boyfriend (actually there were quite a few of them); another chapter… That's life. If I had started writing a year and a half ago when we used to fight more often, this would be the longest fanfic ever written, I swear. No offense, honey ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough day. Oh and this was inspired by an Evangelion chapter, in case you didn't notice. I don't own that either. And I've written the first half ages ago and finished it just now, so it might sound a bit incoherent.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

After Jean and Scott talk their argument over, Professor X. calls them up to scold the pair since their problem had affected the whole team performance. Xavier sends them alone on a mission to rescue a girl who can clone herself, but before that, they were ordered to spend some days together, in order to tune with each other.

**Phoenix Love Never Dies**

Five o'clock in the morning. The clock's alarm rang annoyingly, filling the room with it's innervating sound. Scott turned around in bed with his eyes still closed as his hand reached for the off button even before looking for his goggles.

A second later he felt a hand on his own, also trying to turn off the alarm and he startled opening his eyes for a fraction of a second, which was of course enough as to make a nice hole in the ceiling.

The noise of the optic blast on the plaster made Jean jump off her bed confused by the sudden noise.

"Scott!" she called him instinctively in a worried tone of voice. "Are you okay!?" came the question almost immediately.

"I'm fine" he assured her calming down as he remembered what had happened the day before and what the situation was like in that moment. "I just startled, that's all" he excused himself, feeling embarrassed of having forgotten he was sleeping in the same room with Jean in twin beds for the next ten days. He disliked the idea of her reading his mind and finding out that what had made him react that way had been the unexpected contact of her soft hand.

Even though they had supposedly settled their differences already, the silences among them were still very uncomfortable, since being trapped in younger bodies with your ex husband/wife after all that had happened between them lately was at least awkward to begin with.

She walked to his side and sat on his bed, handing Scott his goggles from the nightstand. He was sitting on the bed already and took the glasses from her to place them where they belonged. Now he could see. He looked at her visibly ashamed and she softly rested her hand on his with an understanding look on her face.

"It's all right" she told him with a small smile, removing the plaster from his bare chest with the other hand, obviously knowing the reason he overreacted in that way. "I didn't remember I was here either at first" Jean said in a soft voice resting her hand on her lap as she noticed her touch was making him even more uncomfortable, even though she had removed the plaster mechanically, without thinking of what she was actually doing or the fact he was wearing only his sporty pants. "Sorry" she apologized suddenly blushing and looking away.

"It's okay" he lied still embarrassed because of the whole situation and then after a short uncomfortable silence he sighed. "We definitely have to do something about this tense atmosphere if we want to lead a normal life for the next days... let alone the training sessions" he said sincerely concerned. Her face reflected the fact she admitted he was right, but what could they do about the issue? He had shivered at her unintentional touch but was too proud to accept her apologies and she was too ashamed of what she had done to ask him to forgive her once more. It looked like something had broken among them. "I know we have to give it some time, but it's not easy if we have to spend every minute of the day together trying to think connect" his apology took the form of an explanation. Jean could feel it too and sighed sadly.

"I know..." she admitted. "...you're Absolutely right and yet... I can't think of anything new to add to the matter... It seems we're stuck here, Slim" she said with a shrug, before making a short pause. Jean looked hurt not to be able to be near him, to caress him, to be just like in the good old times, but so did Scott. "I think we better get dressed and begin the training" Scott suggested to change subjects. She nodded and forced a smile, doing her best to keep the morals high, but it hurt so much to see him and know she couldn't have him... He smiled back at her, showing he appreciated the gesture.

They had the Danger Room to themselves according to Professor Xavier's arrange, so they began with the short program, to get their muscles and senses used to the exercise. A huge sentinel appeared to the left. They both turned to face it when another one came the opposite way trapping them in the middle. Scott shot the first one with his optic blast, and nothing happened. He kept on blasting at it but it just wouldn't break, while Jean tried to lift their feet from the floor to make them fall. "What's the matter with this two big guys?" Scott asked perplex and looking as both robots came closer to them. "I think the Professor wants us to practice our coordination" replied Jean from inside the shield she had created around them, which the sentinels were trying to break with their laser shootings. Scott nodded. The temperature in the room began to raise fast as the floor got hot for some reason.

"When I count three" he said getting ready to attack one of the robots, laying their back against the other's. "Roger" Jean focused her telekinesis on the other robot's foot and he began to count. "One..." the sentinels were still shooting at them and the edges of the shield she had created were showing that the whole protection was about to collapse. She couldn't concentrate properly with that uncomfortably high temperature. "...two..." the sentinels were still shooting at them and tried to crash them with their feet. "They're making me things easier" Jean thought with a smile. "...three..." the shield broke up and Cyclops blasted his robot in the chest, making it fall back wards as the other one lost balance and fell when its leg got raised in the air and they both ran not to be crushed by the pile of metal.

The floor was still getting hotter every second and they better found a way to protect themselves since it had already started to melt their shoes. "Quick, over the pile of trash!" he ordered as he began to climb, tending her his hand to help her up...

Both sentinels were out of combat, as well as the rest of the enemies the simulation proposed that day, but their performance was really lousy and both knew it, not really daring to talk to the other about the training session, not even in the breaks they took. It seemed that X-Men have gotten used to teamwork so much that pairing up turned them into inefficient fighters.

At the end of the day, Professor Xavier called them to his office to let them know just how disappointing their training had been to him, who had been watching them from the control room. "...and in top of things... you needed to learn coordination! I said you needed to coordinate every movement, not just split up the number of opponents among the two of you. Today was just a waste of time." the man complained. "You will go back in there tomorrow and you will begin working as a single mind and body or you won't enter the Danger Room at all" was his ultimatum. "This girl will be moved again in ten days... and they'll get her out of there in a plastic bag, so we need to get her out of that laboratory before they get to such an uncivilized solution." Again, none of them dared to say anything when they knew what Professor X was saying was true. With their heads low they headed for the showers as soon as they were dismissed.

Silent embraced them as they walked down the hall when lights went down. "What the...?" "Now what?" they asked themselves. It seemed to be just a power cut, but as Rogue said some minutes later to all the mutants gathered at the entrance hall, it had affected the whole neighborhood.

"Great, just what we need!" Kitty exclaimed ironically. "I was WATCHING that movie, you know!?" Bobby Drake complaint. "I'm afraid there's somebody after this..." The serious voice of the Professor came from a corner where some candles stood. He had just entered the room and seemed to have everything under control. "The Mansion's generator is not working either" he explained. That was the reason the mansion was out of power just as everywhere else in the area. "Ororo, you and your team get ready to go check on it. The Brotherhood Headquarters is a good place to begin, they've done something similar in Boston last month..." he began giving orders. "Logan, I want you to go with them. The rest of you go back to your activities" Most of them just kept on complaining before heading for the kitchen, where the emergency lights were mostly concentrated.

"I guess we'll have to go out for dinner" Jean suggested. Scott thanked darkness she wouldn't be able to see the look in his face at that comment. It was hard for him to share a room with her and train together all day long, but going out for dinner? It was too much! It was like going back to being her husband but not being able to be open at her. Not only they weren't sharing the psychic bond they used to have but everything was different, and it hurt him to realize that every minute with every single action or word they spoke to each other. He had felt so lost without her and now he had the chance to get her back and ruined it completely because of his pride... He had to find a way to apologize to her and make things right, but he wouldn't be able to do so in a public place such as a restaurant. Besides, that location would make feel extra uncomfortable, and would freeze his tongue... that wouldn't work, he had to think of something else.

He was completely sweaty, just as her and there was no way they would allow them into a restaurant like that. Not even a cheap one. "Fine, let's figure out how to take a bath and after that I'll take you wherever you want" he proposed as a deal, unconsciously agreeing to take her anywhere in a tone that sounded more like an invitation. He scolded himself for that acting out and avoided her eyes. She noticed the point behind his words, it was pointless to go out looking and specially smelling like that, but she didn't suspect at all that he was looking for an excuse to talk to her. Without using her powers she was no different than a normal human, so she still thought he was mad at her since his attitude towards her after that talk at the recreation room had been somehow distant or at least it seemed pretty indifferent, but was actually a reflection of his shyness like the one he suffered when they first met, for example.

"Okay" she accepted with a peaceful smile, not willing to give him a chance to take the offer back. It had surprised her to hear such an offer coming from him after the dry attitude he had gave her after that moment of weakness when he saw her asleep. It was the first time he had been that nice to her since then and, in a way she had felt that as an opportunity to talk to him in a relaxed place and perhaps get rid of all those uncomfortable silences they shared after the talk. "I've got an idea." Jean smiled confident. She sounded optimistic at that point so he didn't complain. Perhaps he could find the chance to talk to her after all... if he could only be less proud and shy and let his feelings rule over him... "Go fetch your stuff and meet me at the pool" was all she said before leaving for her own room to get fresh clothes and some towels.

"What is going through your head, Scott?" she thought as she went upstairs with a hand on the banister as not to trip. "You've been trying to avoid my as much as our training allowed it for the past two weeks and now you're willing to take me 'anywhere I want' for dinner?" Jean continued to talk to herself in her way to her room. Having dobts about other people's thoughts just as anyone else was something new for her. She had always respecter people's intimacy, yes, but she was also a woman and women are curious so, even Jean couldn't resist the temptation of peeking into other's minds from time to time when she really wanted to know what they thought. Now she had restrain herself and felt she couldn't go on like that much longer. She sighed tiredly. "Just how stubborn is he? He didn't want to be alone with me even after Professor's order to be isolated from the rest of the team... and now he wants to join me for dinner willingly? I just don't get that man!" And that, coming from a woman that had been married to him for years was definitely something. "Why can't he just put his pride aside... it's not as I haven't seen the way he looks at me..." And that, coming from a woman that had been married to him for years was definitely something.

For a second she thought it would have been better for all if she remained dead and he and Emma went on with their lives in the alternate reality, but then she asked herself the question, looking really deep into her soul and decided she didn't want to give up on him yet. After making her mind about him, she looked less frustrated and soon she was by the pool, waiting for Scott.

"You're late" she dared to scold him telepathically. He winced at the sensation of her inside his mind, he didn't even want to think about anything fearing she would hear him, but she thought he better got used to it. When she made up her mind, she had also decided it was time to return to the way things were before, and that meant using her powers with him, which was a must if they wanted to rescue that poor girl.

"Bathing in the moonlight? This is not the time to be romantic, Jean" he mumbled to himself as he saw what she had done by the pool, but at the same time he couldn't help smiling, not only at the sight of her, but at the way she always seemed to find quickly an easy solution to almost every problem. It was almost impossible for him to remain pessimistic in her company when she had those intelligent ideas. It was the little things like that detail she had just thought of what made him love her so madly. "I've heard that" she let him know inside his head as she placed her hand on his shoulder lightly. "Sorry" he apologized without even knowing why he was saying so, but blushing a bit.

Using her powers, Jean managed to improvise a shower with curtains she had borrowed from her room, so Mr.. Shy wouldn't have to complain about being exposed to curious looks. "The water is cold, but should do" she told him as she stepped out of her improvised shower completely dressed and with her hair wrapped in a towel. "Thank you" he said smiling back, thankfully. He felt more relaxed than earlier at seeing how much effort she was putting into making it work, but specially because she removed her hand off him and that made him feel his divided heart that longed her proximity and feared it at the same time. Her voice brought him back from his thoughts.

"The soap and the shampoo is to your left" she explained. "I can't see them" he told her still trying to find them in spite of the reduced vision his glasses allowed him. "Oh, sorry. I'll hand them to you" she offered with a smile, realizing the poor illumination a few candles gave them was probably not enough for him to see much through his ruby quartz glasses. Knowing he was still if not mad, at least uncomfortable with her presence and all, she couldn't help peeking when handing him the soap. After all he had seen her naked when the Phoenix brought her back and that made them even, didn't it? He was as gorgeous and perfect as she remembered him, even a bit younger. She smiled to herself and closed the curtains again, waiting for him nearby.

In the meaningless, she thought she should have made twin showers, but she didn't have enough curtains for that, but she knew the power going out wasn't included in Xavier's plans, so she forgot about it as soon as she could and a couple of minutes later Scott was ready too. "Shall we get moving?" he asked her offering Jean his arm, in a better mood than before, probably thank to the water that washed away not only his body but also his mind, allowing him to think clearly enough as to take a decision. He had had enough time to think about for about two weeks and she definitely had a point. He had accepted the Phoenix's amend, so there must have been a very good reason for him to do so. If things would have been perfect with Emma he wouldn't even think about going back to Jean but he did. And he knew he still loved her, even if she had hurt him. He had hurt her too many times too, he had no right as not to forgive her, neither he wanted to stay away from her, but he needed to find the right moment to talk about it or they'd end up arguing again, he was sure of it. That was when he took the decision.

"Sure" she said smiling at him happy with his change of attitude and wondering what was the reason of his change of attitude. "I'll drive" he offered.

They took Scott's convertible and he drove slowly through the dark streets, more because of the fact he wanted the ride to last as much as possible than because of the traffic lights not working. They were riding in silence and it was the first comfortable one they have had since she came back to life, so he wanted to make sure she noticed it too and to enjoy it while it lasted. He was a natural born pessimistic, so he didn't actually believe it would last long. For a while it was like going back to a time when everything was just perfect. Their favorite radio playing old songs, the air messing their hair and nobody else there to interrupt as usually happened at the mansion.

Jean had noticed the atmosphere as well as he had, but said no word about it. Instead, she occasionally glanced at his hand so close to her she felt the urge to cover it with hers like she used to do when he took her for a ride, especially since she had done that in one of their first dates, but she refrained herself from doing it. She was not sure of his feelings and didn't want to bother him, or make him feel uncomfortable, least of all provoke another argument. She had decided to become passive and wait for him to show some affection before trying another move. After all, he might have kissed her back in the recreation room, but after that she had winked at him and he just grew colder after it. Perhaps he changed his mind after what he told her when he thought she was asleep. She had no means to know that and didn't dare to read his mind yet. He was a natural for blocking telepaths and he would definitely feel her and realize what was going on. She wanted to do things gradually not to scare him. Earlier, she had taken the fist step by telling him he was late with her powers, it was the beginning.

She looked at him by the corner of her eye for the twentieth time in the night already and smiled. That night she was feeling like a schoolgirl repressing giggles and looking at him furtively, but every since he offered to take her 'wherever she wanted', she felt they were a step closer to get back together. That time, he caught her eye and looked at her inquisitively while she looked away. "What's wrong?" he asked not realizing what her mood was, with his mind lost in his own thoughts as it was. "Nothing" she said quietly. There was a short silence. "So..." he began looking at her for a second before looking back at the road. "...it seems we've reached the part of the city that still has lights" that one was obvious, but was just the preface. She looked at him. "Where do you want to go?" he asked as casually as he could. He knew her answer would give him the hint about her feelings, or at the very least would condition the outcoming of the night.

He had spoke to her in a relaxed way that sounded unusual after the way he had talked to her in the last two weeks and she couldn't stop noticing it. It was a good question. She hadn't give it a thought yet, so she evaded the question. "I don't know... I'm not really familiar with this part of the city... you choose" her voice sounded sincere enough as not to give him the idea she was walking away from the problem.

He looked somehow disappointed at that reply and she realized that, feeling a bit sad herself. Perhaps she had said the wrong thing and sounded indifferent to him. Now she didn't know what to say to make it right, and knew anything she said would be worse.

In that moment she decided to be a little impulsive and placed her hand on him, like she used to do and he couldn't help glancing at her for a second again, looking for reassurance, then looking back at the street, but she kept facing forward. He smiled at the gesture "I know a place..." he said vaguely, now correcting the car's course so they could take the next turn left.

TO BE CONTINUED!!

Author's Note: Hi!!! I know it took me like FOREVER to finish this chapter, but inspiration just wouldn't come. I've already began working on the next one, so be prepared!! It might have some typos, but my co-reader is on vacation.


	9. Through Your Eyes

What can I say? I took a long vacation from writing, but inspiration just wouldn't come until recently when I joined an RPG as Jean...still I feel writing this is not as easy to me as it was last year, but I'll put extra effort in this chapter in order to keep the original seven's style. I don't like the way I wrote last chapter, that's why I want this to be the best I can.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough year... but 2008 is promisingly good so far.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

Jean and Scott have talked their differences but even after that, the tension among the pair is still almost tangible. In spite of that, they have to keep training together for another nine days, but the lights go out and they have to go out for dinner together to continue the synchronization program Xavier set up for them.

**Through Your Eyes**

They rode for another fifteen minutes before Jean began to recognize the neighborhood they were in, or at least that was what she thought, but she couldn't fully believe it. That couldn't be happening, it was just too good to be true and her heart skipped a beat the moment she realized they were just a couple of blocks away from the restaurant where they celebrated their engagement ages ago. Of course in this... reality? there were still a few years to pass before they got to that point. The Phoenix had really taken them back in time quite a lot, but if that meant more time for them to make up things, we wouldn't hear her complain not once. She wondered if the place was still... she meant already there in that year, but she dared not to ask him. After all, even if Scott was a man to whom details like that mattered, that made nothing certain, it could only be just an unlucky guess of hers and he could be taking her someplace else. Jean didn't want to think of that possibility, disappointment would be so great she knew she wouldn't be able to refrain her tears and she didn't want to cry in front of him again. She knew how much it hurt him to see her cry, even when they were in the middle of an argument, and she loved him deeply, so she was not giving him any more pain than she already had if she could avoid it.

While her mind was lost in this kind of thoughts and speculations, he took the turn in the place she expected him to and reduced the speed, suddenly they were in a zone full of Chinese laundry stores and such, but there was no sign of the fancy restaurant they both expected to be there. It seemed the neighborhood became respected and safe later on the time line of that reality.

Scott couldn't hide his disappointment, least of all from someone who knew him that well, and Jean felt sorry for him almost forgetting her own feelings. The calm atmosphere broke as he sped up again, trying to think of another place for them to go and then the silence between them turned uncomfortable again. He felt stupid for not thinking about the possibility of the place not being there yet and she knew exactly how he would be feeling and felt in the dire need of an idea that would make him feel better, but had none, so she didn't speak. She just sat next to him shrinking her brain searching for the right words, she had always been the best of them two at that, but now Jean's mind was completely blank. She would have told him to stop the car in a commanding voice and then kissed him but she didn't have the courage. He might have been his husband but for some reason it felt now, and even more everyday since that night they connected, like it was a thousand years ago and just didn't feel right.

She sat in an uncomfortable silence for the rest of the trip, pretending to listen to the radio and giving his pride the option to remain intact. It was really unbelievable sometimes that a man who could be such a great leader became a total teenager when it came to the woman he loved.

Finally, he found another place he thought was okay as to compensate the closed one, but at the same time not as expensive as for her to begin asking questions about it. Anyway, it was easy for Charles Xavier's students to forget soon after their arrival at the mansion how money used to condition life before they could have access to the Professor's money to cover their expenses.

Scott parked the car and they both got off it, slowly walking into the place as if they wanted to postpone the moment of the talk as much as possible, but for reasons that had nothing to do with why they wanted the ride to last longer. Now the atmosphere was not only as tense as before but it was even worse, since now, Scott's feeling of discourage was really evident, as well as the disappointment in his face. Jean still felt terrible for him and she would have wished earth would engulf her so she'd save him the uncomfortable moment.

Trying to make him feel better, she placed her hand at his shoulder once again and was about to say something when the waitress talked to them and Jean had to save whatever she was going to say for later. Even a warm hearted person such as herself would give the evil eye to a woman that had nothing to do with her problems if they interrupted her trying to be sweet to that special someone. The girl looked at her a little scared, making Scott glance at Jean too, only to find her face muscles relaxed, as she quickly changed her expression. "So... where can we sit?" she brought back the whole point of the intruder being involved in the conversation. The woman blushed and apologized before leading them to a table where a puzzled Cyclops sat in front of her, who was looking at the menu.

Even after they ordered, none of them spoke, each one wondering what the other one thought about them. They both knew eventually they'd have to come to talk about things, but as none of them wanted to argue and feared for the other's reaction... they were pretty much where they've been in the beginning, when Scott had to gather courage for over a year and a half to ask her out to the movies.

"Jean, I..." he began to say in an apologetically voice, but she warmly smiled at him and gently took his hand over the table. "I know, Scott, and I really appreciate it. It was a nice gesture, you don't have to worry about it" she said kindly as she finally recognized her husband in the man sitting across her in the table, for the first time in weeks. At least that was until she said that and he turned red. He was trying to talk about a whole different subject than the restaurant not being there, which he was actually trying to forget. "I know" he just said, getting back to normal. "Anyway Jean, I wanted to..."

"_Professor Xavier to all available X-Men__..."_ it echoed inside their heads. Disappointed was suddenly written all over their faces. _"Great timing, huh?"_ she asked him telepathically with a resigned smile to cheer him up as he rose from his chair. "We better get going" he said reluctantly.

Jean was about to take his hand while leaving when she felt his strong hand in her shoulder. The contact made her feel as if a light bolt had just ran through her entire body, catching her off guard. Apparently, she hadn't done things worse by mentioning the place that was not there yet after all. It seemed to have given him a nice amount of confidence after the first uncomfortable moment, or at least it seemed to make him realize she was not resentful anymore. She smiled at that thought and looked at him for a second, but he appeared to already have switched his mind from human being to team leader judging by the determinate look in his face. She had always known she had lost him for a while when he made that face.

The battle zone was already a complete mess when they arrived. The debris covering two thirds of the floor were as high as them or even higher, and it looked just like a giant's playground after he finished playing. They looked at the place searching for their allies, but they couldn't find them at first.

Jean used her powers to locate Rogue and Storm, who were behind a huge pile of debris that once had been a coffee shop. It seemed they were the first to arrive, since they both could fly. The girls looked relaxed enough as for them to deduce they had arrived too late, when the fight was already over, so they calmly walked to them and greeted the pair.

"What's the situation here, Storm?" Scott asked her with a confident smile. He was just teasing her as the place looked calm. "It's under control" she replied smiling back. "I think that big boy over there finally found something harder than his head" Rogue said pointing to the pile of debris next to them, under which they had confined the mutant they had been confronting. "What was he like?" Jean asked out of curiosity. "It was like blending Rogue with Colossus" Storm stated. "What do you mean by that?" Scott asked confused, beginning to worry. He didn't think it was a good idea to be so relaxed if the guy was somehow like Colossus, even if he had several tons of concrete on top of him.

In that precise moment, two hands came out of the debris pile and grabbed Jean's and Cyclops' ankles, absorbing both of their powers, as the other two X-Men were out of reach for him.

After that, everything happened too fast for any of them to really understand what was going on until it was too late. They felt a dead grip holding their ankles and their strength being dragged out of their body at an incredible speed. Next second Jean screamed nonstop as optic blasts came out of her eyes uncontrollably. She was not able to close her eyes. Scott fell to his knees while holding his head, trying to stop the headache and feeling he was driving crazy as he could hear the thoughts of every single agonizing person in a range of many miles echoing at the same time inside his head, not being able to block them.


	10. The Shadow of the Phoenix

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK

I received an alert today saying a new chapter of one of my favorite fics had been submitted so I got inspired and wrote some more.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough year... but 2008 is promisingly good so far.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

A not so perfect romantic dinner was interrupted before it started by Xavier's call summoning all X-Men to a disaster zone. There, a supposedly dead mutant swapped Scott and Jean's powers.

**The Shadow of the Phoenix**

It was a known fact that the X-Men worked best under pressure. Even though, it took several minutes for Storm and Rogue to take care of the situation, especially understaffed as they were with the rest of their team out of combat. The strong mutant threw them away in opposite directions as he saw the two flying women approaching him, getting ready to confront them. Scott managed to land on his fours, but Jean had a bad time hitting the floor in a painful way, meters away.

In the meaning time, the rest of the team told Storm thought the intercom that they'd be there in no time, while both girls were trying to keep the enemy busy, shrinking their brains to come up with a way to reduce it, the troubled couple struggled with their own problems. Scott was the first one to react.

He knew at once what had happened, he had spent too many years listening to Jean and Charle's complaints as not to recognize the symptoms. Then he heard Jean scream and completed the picture. His first impulse was to take off his glasses and find a way to give them to her, even when the pain inside his head was excruciating. He reminded how hard it had been for him the first times his power had emerged and wanted to make it easy to her. If there was a bright side or something useful to learn about those horrible first experiences with his optic blasts, then it had to be being able to help her, making it easier for her.

It was his determination what made him look for her, overcome the impulse of not opening his eyes without the glasses, and trying to forget of that terrible headache. It was like thousands of radios and TV's screaming inside his head with the volume set at the maximum. He felt bad for Jean feeling like that as she grew up, as if his own teenage years wouldn't have been difficult as well. It was love what made him so partial, but he was unable to be objective when it was about her and it has always been like that. In that moment he respected her, as he truly understood the difficulty of keeping everyone else's minds out of his own. Until that moment, even though he knew how her gift worked, Scott was unconsciously unable to see sometimes how hard it might have been for her to restrain her powers as not to read people's minds, even after learning to control it, doing it was a whole different thing.

Of course all that reasoning took him only a few seconds at the speed his aching mind was thinking. It felt completely different from what it was to be himself, if that made any sense to anyone. Anyway, he forced himself to open his eyes and looked around a bit confusing. It had been a while since he was last able to see the world its real color and the compulsion to close his eyes and clutch his head was really hard to fight. It took him all his determination to do so, but once he did it, finding Jean wasn't really all that difficult. She had stopped screaming, but was still unable to control her eyes.

With things as they were, it was going to be really difficult to get near her alive. She was not able to see, he knew that much, so there had to be a way to make her stay still. Besides, she could feel her confusion and pain in his head, among with Storm and Rogue's desperation to beat the enemy and thousands of other thoughts, not only of the people under the debris, but also of the rest of the neighborhood.

"Jean, stay still! Try to look at the sky!" he suggested, trying to reach her at the top of his voice, feeling the voices in his head were actually making him deaf. He felt he wouldn't be heard otherwise, despite the fact he knew better than that. "I'll take you my glasses! Just stay there… try not to kill me!" he told her adding a little bit of humor to the situation. It seemed there was an uncle raping his niece somewhere near, but he didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to know about it! …or the people watching a soap opera, or cooking dinner or whatever. Couldn't they just shut up!?

As she had been blocking all that noise pretty neatly before the incident, she didn't connect the ideas as fast as he did or as she should have when she first felt the beams coming out of her eyes, but the shock was too big for that and, when she finally deduced what was going on and tried to aim somewhere where she wouldn't hurt anyone, the pain was so piercing, she had lost control of herself. She had tried to control that, but it was stronger than her, and also feared she would take Rouge or Storm down if she tried to look up. Then she heard Scott's voice and it made sense to her. They both were able to see as well as to fly, so she probably shouldn't misjudge their capacity to dodge her beams. She told herself that and made an effort to look up just as Scott had just told her to, but it was really difficult to take control over that. "I'm trying!" she told him turning around with some difficulty, not able to stand up after that difficult fall in order to avoid facing him, hoping he'd be able to approach her from behind.

Scott got the hint and tried to do so, walking to her with the red shades in his hand and the other one on his head. "How do you shut it up!?" he asked with a note of worry in his voice. There was no way he could connect two ideas together like that, he lacked the space for his own thoughts in there with all that noise going on. That comment confirmed her suspicious and she tried to think for a moment. She did so automatically, although they had taught her how somewhere along the way. How to put it in a concise way? She couldn't think straight, her head was aching too. "Hum… focus on something else! Think of something quiet!" she suggested doubting he would find the advice any useful. It had been really hard for her to master that art and she would have remained at the mental institution if it weren't for Professor Xavier's mental block, which allowed her to develop and tame her power slowly, at her own pace. "I'm right here" he said behind her, to prevent her to keep on yelling like that, but a part of him still felt that if she stopped yelling, he wouldn't hear her among all the others inside his head.

He got close to her and knelt by her side, behind her, where he helped her to put on the glasses firmly in place. "You can open your eyes now…" he told her noticing how much the fall had hurt her. If only he could think straight. "Thanks" she said slightly relieved, but still in pain. "Can you stand up?" She nodded, not really sure. "You need to see the Professor… he can shut your mind for …" Jean said taking his arm to lift herself and try to stand up, but she fell again at once. "…you" ended the phrase, feeling the situation overwhelmed her.

Good thing was, the rest of the team arrived soon after, balancing the score to their advantage before it was over.

A couple of hours later, in the mansion, Scott entered their shared room without the tray Ororo insisted he should take her. He had been through that before and knew food would be the last thing in her mind if her experience was anything like his.

The professor had spent what seemed like an eternity trying to place a mind block on him as he had done with her ages ago, and thus, he was already feeling much better than she was. He had even forgotten about his shyness and pride and felt decided to take care of her as much as he could. Of all the people in the universe, she was the only one to whom he would have never wished such an unpleasant experience, let alone painful.

"How do you feel?" he asked as he entered the room and sat beside her on the bed, taking her hand in his. He rose it to his lips to kiss it. He didn't care about appearances or quarrels in that moment, he just wanted her to be all right and the fact the Professor had been able to mitigate his pain but not hers made him feel guilty for no logical reason. It hadn't been his fault after all, but it had nothing to do with logics. "I will survive. I was lucky not to break any bone" she said calmly. Rising her voice was out of question considering the way her head ached, in spite of the pain killers she had taken. He felt that didn't quite answered his question, so he tried again. "How's your head?" Scott asked looking at her with his night googles on. Good Lord! Her hair looked especially red when compared to her pale skin… now that he could actually see the difference. She seemed even more beautiful than before and he could appreciate tons of little details he hadn't been able to notice before. "Hurts like hell…" she said not wanting to. She didn't want to make him feel worse. Jean knew him and blaming himself was just a part of the process whenever anyone got hurt at the missions, or even the training sessions. He winced and she placed a hand on his cheek, trying to let him know it was not his fault, for she had long ago gave up on trying to prevent him from taking all the blame. "It'll go away… eventually" he knew it wasn't the most comforting thing he could have told her, but it was the only truth he had for her. "It must have been hard for you to live like this…"she thought aloud. "And the fear of hurting somebody…" Jean thought this time to herself, understanding him better than she did before. She didn't feel pity for him, but a wave of warm love and the urge to hug him and comfort the scared child that he once was, so that he would never feel lonely again.

As she didn't feel like sharing those thoughts with him, so she just kept on caressing his cheek as payback for what he was doing to her hand.

They stayed in silence like that for a really long time before either of them dared to break it. Scott thought it might have been the perfect moment to talk about how he felt and apologize to her if it weren't for her headache. The more he thought about that, he became more convinced that it wasn't a good timing after all. She might think he pitied her and only apologized because of that. No, it wasn't a good idea. It had to be when both of them were ok and receptive, so she wouldn't misunderstand his feelings. Of course, there was a part of his mind that kept on telling him that it was only a mere excuse to keep on avoiding the subject, even if the logic evidence against the whole idea was overwhelming.

"…think we'll ever make it?" she had asked, but he was obviously not listening. "What? Sorry, I was somewhere else" he apologized looking at her for a couple of seconds, not daring to fully stare after having not heard what she was saying. "I asked if you really think we'll ever have a chance to be happy together…" she said softly, with a sad note present in her voice, looking at the red silhouette he had turned into, but ready to look away as soon as he looked at her. Or at least that was what she had thought, but when he actually did, she couldn't play dumb. It was only a second though, before he returned to look at her hand in his instead of her face. It hurt him to see her in his usual condition and felt pathetic. If that was how other people saw him, it made sense they'd mock at him, trying to be a leader and wearing ridiculous googles to sleep. But she was different, she had been able to see him through, the real Scott Summers, not just a bunch of powers trapped in a random human body. Of course his friends cared for him too, but it was not the same kind of affection, it wasn't as unconditional as hers and it took much longer to construct. With Jean, things seemed too easy and at the same time too hard. It was feeling that everything would be all right and at the same time having the facts destroying that theory in the blink of an eye. After all, what chance have they been given? To start over? To start from the beginning, having to go through the same troubles? Or new ones, what difference would it make? If it wasn't the Phoenix that killed her, it would be something else or maybe him dying instead, or just something strange and complicated like what they were going through at that moment…

As he thought all that, she began to believe he wouldn't answer her question and felt discouraged, allowing her mind to become pessimistic in spite of herself. "I…" that was a fine question, but he was unsure about the matter, not having a firm opinion on it yet. "I don't know what I think… I hope so…" was all he could tell her at the time.

Jean remained silent as she thought about it some more, not able to remain objective and letting the situation and headache overwhelm her. "What if we're not really meant to be?" she dared to ask almost in a whisper, as if she feared those words would turn into a monster and devour her. The idea alarmed him and he turned his head to her, looking for her eyes. He needed to know she didn't mean that for real. She couldn't be saying such a thing after all they've been through to be together, after he gave up his former life to have a new beginning with her. He frowned confused, as the concept was too abstract for him to digest. A few incoherent sounds left his mouth. Why was she telling him that? He grew tense after the first doubtful moment and felt a little resented towards her. "How can you say that after all we've fought to get here?" he asked her still not believing it. That didn't sound like his Jean. "I'm just wondering…" she corrected herself, rising her voice to a normal volume. "What if no matter how much effort we put into it and how hard we try it doesn't work?" she asked this time not fearing to say it since they were already talking about it.

"Well in that case I prefer to die trying" he told her convinced of it. Wasn't that what she had done before? Every time? Hurting him and everybody around them… "There will always be problems showing up from time to time, but isn't life about solving them and moving on together?" it was one of those rare moments in which she was the pessimistic and he the one cheering her up and they both were well aware of it.

She didn't say anything first, but then it made sense. "Yeah, I guess you're right… I guess I've just let the situation take over me for a while" she expressed still sounding somehow sad. "But I am scared… I'm afraid I will end up leaving you alone and hurting you as I did before every time I died as the Phoenix… What if something else happens to put me in that position again? Something different… what if that's our faith?" she let him know her doubts and fears, undressing her soul to him. "Weren't you the one who always told me that every one of us makes their own faith?" he asked wondering if she had been telling him something she didn't believe herself in the first place. No, Jean wasn't that kind of person. He knew her better than that. It wasn't the time to doubt her, but to be strong for her. "I believe you. Since when you stopped believing in that?" he wondered out loud. She barely rocked her head to the sides. It wasn't like that either.

Jean sighed, feeling her head ached harder when she forced herself to think and to talk, but it was worth it. Talking that kind of things was by far more important than any physical pain. "I don't know… I hope I'm right" she just said, worried, but not able to think of any other thing to add.

For a second, Scott felt like telling her all he had given up for her, for that chance for her to take it so lightly, but what had he given up in the end? A life that didn't satisfy him with a demanding woman he loved only because he had been told to and had no other chance? He tried to stay rational. His feelings when powered by frustration never led to anything good. That was not the time for recriminations, if any. Then, he remembered what she had told him some days ago, about letting time heal the wounds. His pride wasn't that important for him anymore when it was about her and looking in retrospective, he thought._ "What made him angrier was her pushing me away, forcing me to be with Emma"_ his mind racing with that thought stream. _"It was __**my**__ life, what if I __**wanted**__ to suffer whatever it might have taken to be with you?" _He had to admit it was something he had thought a thousand times before and it was pointless to go over again, but just couldn't help it. _"Right, we have already talked about that. She said she was sorry, I now think it doesn't matter anymore, that it's pointless to keep on going on a track of pride that won't take us an inch closer to each others, now what?"_ he asked himself, out of script.

After a long silence, he talked again. "Do you love me, Jean?" he asked her honestly, looking at her eyes through the ruby quartz. She tried to say something that looked like a complaint but he interrupted. "I know you've said so before, but now. Do you love me?" he demanded to know sounding more and more convinced of his own feelings as she doubted. "Of course I do!" she said vehemently as soon as he let her speak. "With all my heart and you know it…" and it seemed as if she were about to reproach him for doubting it. _"After all, you were the one playing difficult while I apologized…"_ she remembered. She found out her own advice was useful for once. If she thought about something else, even if the headache got worse, for a moment she was able not to remember it. _"I wonder if he did that too to get rid of it when he was going through this…" _she asked herself.

"Then don't worry about what is yet to come" Scott asked her lightly squeezing her hand for a moment, stopping her talk with herself. It felt nice not to be a telepath for once. It made her mind be at peace, incoherent as it might sound with her recently acquired teenager mutant crisis. "I'm taking care of you…" he told her, making her feel she slowly began to recover her husband, the man she had fallen in love with. He wasn't good with words and he knew it. He never was. "I've been thinking and…" for the umpteenth time in their lives, they were interrupted. He was so frustrated he could have hit Ororo, but he was too much of a repressed person for that. _"Oh damn! I had even thought what I wanted to say!" he _complaint to himself. That was something that didn't happen every day.

Their friend entered the room after a short knock, bringing the tray with her food, the one she had asked him to take her_. "Maybe I should have listened to her and then I'd have had the chance to…"_ but then something else might have happened. _"Perhaps it just wasn't the time for that" _he accepted with resignation, after giving Ororo the evil eye. The poor woman thought he was still mad at her because of the tray, he realized. "Oh, well. Nevermind" he thought. He'd be nicer to her for a while and it would be all right. 

"Thanks, Ro" Jean smiled at her friend feeling internally relieved. She did want to hear what he might have had to say, it sounded so promising! She could tell by his voice, but with the tension and her headache she preferred to save the talk for another occasion. One in which she could actually enjoy it instead of suffering it. "I'll try to eat some later" As she left, she would have asked him where he was before the interruption, just for the fun of making him uncomfortable and seeing him blush. He was cute when he did so, the powerful man and mighty leader blushing… but she was too tired even for that. "Do you mind if I sleep now, Scott. I'm really tired" she confessed, making him feel a little disappointed, but he nodded anyway. "Sure. I'll be here in case you need me" he let her know as he rose to look for a book to entertain himself with.

She found herself at a house by the sea. It was a small cottage with the most amazing view, especially at sunset. The sun was setting and there was no one else in the house besides her and her cat Prometheus, the one she had as a child. The black cat purred as he walked near her, happy to be there.

She looked around, getting away from the Bo window, into the room. The walls were a soft shade of green and the afternoon light printed a glittering pattern in them, making the paintings hanging in some strategic places come to life. They were all seascapes and there was also a fireplace and further into the room, in the opposite wall, an arcade leading to what appeared to be a yellow kitchen. Jean walked there out of curiosity, stopping only for a second to see a picture of her and Scott on top of the fireplace, before reaching the kitchen with the small shadow Prometheus was, following her closely, meowing for food. "Okay okay, I'll feed you" she said and giggled at the idea of her, talking to a cat. "Calm down!" she asked him giggling again, happy to find herself in such a comfortable place.

The house wasn't any residence she had been to before, but she could easily recognize her own touch in it. With that on mind, her eyes ran through the furniture. "Now, where would I put your food if I were myslelf?" she asked the animal, as if it would reply. It was sitting in the floor, its green eyes fixed on hers. She thought for a moment. "Right, the right door of the ladder!" Jean told herself, remembering that's where her mother used to keep it. Naturally, she found it there and as soon as the bowl was filled, the cat completely forgot about her, allowing Jean to caress it, but ignoring her nevertheless. She was about to tell something to the animal when the phone rang. It was Scott, telling her he would be home for dinner.

A normal life, nothing more than what she had asked for, something simple. It made her feel like a school girl playing housewife and she thought of something nice to make him for dinner. His favorite dish perhaps.

Half the meal was done when something caught her attention. Someone was crying. A baby. She hesitated for a second before going back to the living room and discovering a door that wasn't there before. It led to a darker room, where the lights were off and the last rays of the day didn't reach. The walls were painted a soft color she couldn't define and took a step into the room. There was no doubt the sound came from there. She could see a pink crib in the middle of the room, and for a moment she didn't dare to go any further. It felt like she was profaning some sacred place, somebody else's life, even though just a minute before it felt so hers. _"We have a baby?" _she asked herself taking another unsure step to the crib, suddenly invaded by a motherly instinct that urged her to calm her down, make her feel protected, and the feeling of possessiveness reappeared. She longed to get close to that baby, to hold it and feel it as a part of her life, her reality… it was such a tempting idea that it warmed her heart.

That was before she realized she was not alone. There was a woman there, standing in the darkness. Her hair was a rebel red mass that seemed to have its own life, gravity laws didn't applied to it, and was wearing red and gold. Green eyes pierced Jean's defiantly, telling her in silence not to come close.

The woman she recognized at once was holding the baby, but she couldn't see it, only the large blanket in which it was warped. Her dark reflection looked at her with hate and her body language was that of a thief. It was obvious there was nothing maternal about the Phoenix standing there or the way she held the child, like it was a thing, a mere object she was sent to retrieve. "She is mine!" the entity made flesh warned her, fiercely taking a step closer to her, making Jean feel intimidated.


	11. Stubborn and Proud

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK

I fell down the subway stairs this morning and now I've found myself with too much free time at home, in front of the computer; you should be happy, you know what that means. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough year... but 2008 is promisingly good so far.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

A mutant swapped Scott and Jean's powers and they're trying to get used to the change, learning what it felt to grow up being one another, but while Scott's psychic migraines were relatively easily reduced by Professor Xavier, Jean's were provoked by her new optic beams and therefore more difficult to control. Oh, and… What's with the Phoenix again!?

**Stubborn and proud**

She tried to stand her ground and look firm but the woman kept on walking and walking, faster every second, inhumanly fast, but at the same time she saw it in slow motion. It seemed she would pass right through her but she woke up a second before that happened, breathing hard and sweating cold.

Her first reaction was to sit in bed and look for Scott, but she couldn't see a thing. The room was pretty dark and the goggles she had just remembered she was wearing, made it look even darker. "Scott!" she called with a note of distress in her voice, looking around but not finding him. _"You promised you'd be here"_ she cried in her mind, like a little girl. "Scott!" she called again, more nervous than before. She knew it had been just some nightmare, but it felt so real… and the anguish that still remained inside her even after waking up was real too.

For a second she had felt that dream as her real life, her own house, her beloved cat, _her _baby girl… and then that woman… it was herself after all wasn't it? Wasn't she the Phoenix? _"What's that supposed to mean? That I'm to be my own enemy?"_ she felt confused and her head ached again. "No, I'm not one with the Phoenix anymore…" she convinced herself.

It was three in the morning according to the clock on their nightstand, but Scott came in from outside the room_. "What the hell?"_ She felt a bad omen and shivered unintentionally. Cyclops looked worried at her and turned on a lamp near the door. "Jean! Are you okay?" he asked getting to her side quickly. She took his hand and glanced at the night table. Her glass of water was empty; then back at him. "What's wrong?" he wanted to know, making her feel stupid for getting all worked up over a dream and told herself not to talk about it. "I… I had a nightmare" Jean heard herself saying in spite of the previous self-advice. It took her some self-control forcing herself to calm down and give the dream the importance it deserved: none. She did feel stupid after saying that, of course. Without her powers she was technically unable to have premonitions, so there was no reason to worry at all. That was her excuse, as valid as any other. After all, he was the psychic now, the one who's dreams they should be concerned about. That sole idea made her smile to herself ironically. "Sorry…" she ran a hand through her head to clear her mind. "I didn't mean to worry you, I'm all right now" The last part was a lie, but she needed to lie to herself. _"Where were you?"_ her jealousy was poking her mind insanely. "You sure? You wanna talk about it?" he offered, fixing with his hand the mess her hair was, now that he had become the one with the better vision. Jean rocked her head to the sides. "It was nothing" she said firmly, in order to believe it herself. "Where have you been?" It was something she couldn't hold anymore. She _had _to ask and looked at his face closely, searching for any sign on it that could be read as suspicious. "I couldn't sleep, so I went down for some ice cream" he said casually. As he wasn't lying, the question didn't mean anything to him, but he knew her. He had caught the jealousy in her words right away, and found it curious_. "Why would she distrust me?"_ he wondered. The concept was silly. He hadn't done anything wrong.

Jean felt the urge of kissing him to make sure he had been sincere about the ice cream, but she knew it was going too far and pushing her luck at the same time. _"I'm being paranoiac and unreasonable"_ she told herself. It wasn't that far away from the truth. And yet, it was completely impossible for her at the time to let go the idea of him cheating on her. She could still see Scott in bed with Emma. Okay, she deserved that, she had put herself in that position on purpose, but it didn't mean it didn't hurt. She was human after all, with conflictive mixed up feelings and everything.

"Can you help me to the toilet?" she asked him innocently. After the mutant that swapped their powers threw her away earlier that day, she had been more useless than ever before. She didn't have Rogue or Logan's physical strength and resistance, actually she was pretty weak in comparison to almost any other mutant at the mansion, except for the Professor, maybe. Without her telekinesis to help her lower the impact, her body had resented quite a bit. That was the not so bright side of being the telepath of the group.

On top of everything else that had happened to her that day, she felt a burden to others, especially to Scott, who had to help her out and carry her around. "Sure, how do you feel?" He still blamed himself for her condition, everybody could see that. The Professor had left the mansion soon after the lights went out, so she couldn't even borrow his wheel chair. Besides, she felt that was unnecessary and an overreaction to something as simple but painful as a bunch of second grade contusions. "I'm fine, I guess the beams just ceased for now, but there's still no sign of my TK" she said detachedly, trying to avoid the subject. She didn't want to go where she knew he'd feel guilty. A depressed Cyclops was something much worse to endure than any pain. Of course he wasn't talking about her new powers, but decided to play along and just nodded.

Scott rose and lifted her little body easily, carrying Jean to the bath in no time. Still, the brief moment was enough for him to feel her delicate scent and slender arms around his neck. He had carried her like that countless times after an enemy caught her off guard or her telekinesis lost against too much weight. Those occasions weren't the live image of romanticism, but he felt happy to be for her when she was most vulnerable and needed him. Not only in the good times. It gave more meaning to what he felt for her.

"Let me know when you're done" Scott indicated, closing the door out of politeness. The fabric of her yellow nightgown wasn't as thick as one would think. Not that he was complaining, but sometimes it was a disadvantage when things among them were tense after a discussion or it was just a bad timing. "Think of something else" he told himself, finding the task much harder than he would have imagined. Storing unsaid thoughts always drove him obsessive, like the times he had been hard on his father Corsair instead of talking about how the man not looking for him and Alex had made him feel, or at that precise time, not being able to apologize to Jean for… well, not accepting her apologies in the first place and all those tongue twisters so typically him. As it has been said before countless times, he was absolutely lousy at anything that meant dealing with his feelings, either talking about them, showing them through his actions or just live with them bottled inside. That was part of his cuteness, countless foots under his perfect leader shield.

When she opened the door, a surprised expression greeted her. Jean wondered what planet his mind might have wandered off to. She had to admit she began to miss her powers. Then, another idea came to her mind. _"What's gonna happen to that poor mutant girl?"_ she wondered. Were they supposed to go along with the plan despite what had happened to them? "We couldn't coordinate as we were before, let alone having to get used to each other's powers from the beginning… and we have what? Like nine days to do so?" It didn't seem doable, but whom else could they send? At that time there weren't other psychics in the team to get the coordination rate they needed. "What's happening with that girl and the training?" was her answer to his inquisitive look. She didn't notice she had been staring at him for a while already.

"I don't know yet. The Professor's gone away and has left no instructions for us. I'll ask him the next time he makes contact" he said while taking her back to bed. "I guess we'll have to let her go…" Scott suggested with composure. If there was anything capable of totally nullifying his leadership skills and his ability to think logically, that was Jean's well being. She knew he'd be like that, but she also knew how lonely and desperate the poor little girl might have been feeling in her cell at that precise moment, so there was no chance she'd give up on the idea. "No way" she firmly decreed. "We have to do something to help her, Scott" she tried to reason with him, but her succeeding didn't seem very likely. "We can send somebody else" he said vaguely, to stop talking about the subject. "And who's gonna be able to do it as well as we could?" she asked him to be rational, indirectly. He shrugged. "I don't know, I'll think of something" his stubbornness was showing again. He had decided he didn't want to solve the issue in that precise moment and there were none to zero chances of something dissuading him. "You know there is nobody capable of reaching the necessary concentration level" Her tone was getting drier, showing the beginning of her mood swing. "As if we could…" he replied ironically. It was his natural defense to anybody's logical arguments. "You can't walk yourself to the bathroom and I'm no different from any member of the FOH association!" _"I'm trying to look after you! Why do you always have to disagree?" _it was somehow relieving to know he could think whatever he wanted without caring about their mental bond letting her know. Almost refreshing.

"_Here we are, arguing again over something stupid"_ Not that he thought her safety was stupid, but the fact that she resisted his course of action was. Having to struggle with her in order to be allowed to do something as basic as protecting her really frustrated him, and he sighed as he realized that it tired him to argue.

Jean frowned at his sarcasm. She hated it when he talked like that and became obstinate as only a person used to be obeyed can. For a moment there she would have strangled him. Instead, she took a deep breath and calmed herself down, in order to see the matter more objectively. "You're a great leader, you've always been. Don't let your concern for me blind you. You _know_ this girl needs us" she finally told him not allowing any disagreement. "What if it were me trapped in a lab as a test subject?" she knew that way she'd convince him. Scott sighed heavily again, accepting his defeat. "All right, then. What do you suggest?" if she wanted that done, then she could do all the thinking.

The next morning, Scott woke up to find Jean partially dressed and still fighting with her clothes. He saw determination written all over her face, even though a wince changed her expression temporarily every time she tried to do a certain movement. He knew at once that such behavior was a consequence to the conversation they had had before they slept. _"She can be a proud stubborn person herself when she wants to"_ Scott found himself thinking. Even after Professor Xavier had blocked his mind powers in order to prevent him from getting mad since he couldn't control them as Jean could, there still were some telepathy flashes every now and then he couldn't control. Hearing brief fragments of other people's thoughts or so, just like the night before, when she had addressed him with those two words at one point before she fell asleep. It could very well be applied to her too, he thought still a little resented. He had felt lonelier in the last night than in his entire previous life. Getting to know what other people really thought of you wasn't something pleasant, especially if you were unable to control the impulse that made you know those facts in the very first place. _"I understand now why she prefers to be alone from time to time. Living like this must be a real curse. Who can censure their thoughts twenty four seven?" _He couldn't, and Scott was the most repressed of them all. _"And still she's always so kind to everyone…"_ that thought made him forgive her having called him 'proud and stubborn', especially as he saw her wince again.

He stopped looking at her and approached Jean slowly, now wanting to provoke her anger. That didn't happen often but when it did happen, he didn't want to be the one closest. "Let me help you…" he offered knowing she'd refuse. Of course, she did and gave him a glare to advice Scott not to try again. He must have been feeling especially stubborn that morning… "You know I didn't mean you couldn't take care of yourself" he gave in, conciliatorily. "Well you sounded pretty convinced last night as not to mean it" living with someone, anyone, was hardly easy. He gave her a puppy look, he was giving in, it was her turn to accept what he was saying and let there be peace. "Jean…" he tried again. "I know you're in pain. Let me help you dress so we can go out and look for the jerk who did this to us" he proposed, showing her he was willing to go on with the course of action she had suggested the night before.

Jean stopped showing physical signs of hostility, so he decided to take a chance and finishing buttoning her blouse. It was made of a soft green fabric and the buttons were at the back. She didn't complain or resist, but didn't agree either. "So, how are we fighting the giant who gave Storm and Rogue troubles as useless as we are now?" she asked finally giving in too, expecting him to come up with a solution. Her suggestion had been no to leave the girl alone, to rescue her from the lab, something they could manage to do without their powers if they were smart enough, but going after that mutant who had disappeared when they had almost defeated him was a whole different subject.

Scott raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I thought you had a plan…" he said confused, looking at her slightly puzzled. "I said we should rescue that poor girl from the lab, which I believe we're clever enough as to plot a way of doing, but confronting a mutant who took the whole team to take down and managed to run away at the last minute is suicidal" she said standing up with more will than ability, but making an effort to remain on her feet and even sound confident and sensible. _"I see…"_ he thought about the misunderstanding. "But without our real powers we don't stand a chance… that's a well-guarded lab and…" he began. When he didn't want to do something, it took a miracle to convince him. So many years as a leader had given him a certain amount of self-confidence when it came to strategy. That was something that wasn't reflected in any other asset of his life. "Oh, but I know the way…" she said with a mischievous look in her face.

FOH stands for Friends of Humanity, the anti mutant association.


	12. Girls on top

Oh my goodness! I can't believe I haven't updated in such a long time! I'm sorry for that. I have been writing a book, a serious project and I unintentionally abandoned my already neglected fanfics. The other day I found a review for this one on my e-mail and I thought… why not? If there's anyone reading I have to keep my promise to keep writing… here I go…

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough year... but 2008 is promisingly good so far.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

A mutant swapped Scott and Jean's powers and they're trying to get used to the change, learning what it felt to grow up being one another while trying to find a way to go back to normal on time to be able to rescue the young mutant the Professor asked them to retrieve.

**Girls on top**

"I'm all ears, red." He let her know with a broad smile enlightening his face for the first time in a long while. She noticed that, and smiled herself at the sight of his handsome features in front of her. "We've been listing our priorities wrong all along." She introduced her plan, receiving a puzzled look from him as an answer. He inquisitively awaited for her to continue and explain the rest of her idea to him, so she went on with the explanation. "I know our current situation sucks and having swapped our powers unexpectedly is quite a bother, but painful as it may be, this little girl needs us, so we have to find a way to help her first and then take care of our own problem." She explained as simply as she could without directly accusing themselves of being selfish by trying to solve the situation grabbing it from the opposite end of the stick. He slightly frowned at her, still unconvinced. The theory might sound good, but as he had told himself before, it was barely doable if at all and getting both of them killed now that they were young again and had a chance to fix things was not on top of his priority list, to be honest. "I don't know, Jean…" Scott complained doubtfully, unable to find the right words to express why the idea still sounded unappealing. That is, besides de fact of being extremely suicidal. "Oh, come on Scott. Think practically for a moment." She asked him seriously trying to prove her point to him. He reluctantly pressed his thin lips together and listened to her, but the determined look on his eyes reflected just how unwilling he was to let her change his mind. "We don't know what caused this or how to revert it. We don't even know where to start looking for this mutant and, as far as we know, it could take us forever to find a way to revert this… if we can do it at all." Jean made a pause to let the idea sink on his mind, taking into account that he might have still been finding dealing with his newly acquired telepathy difficult to deal with. "Now, regular humans have been breaking into… and I might as well say out of prisons and labs for I don't know how many years now without any special powers to help them…" She saw his expression change as if he were about to complain, so she raised her hand to ask him for a little more patience and he closed his mouth again with a slight frustration pout on his lips. "Some of them didn't even need to become violent murders to do so." She didn't need to be a psychic to know that was probably his main concern about her argument besides their own security, so she rushed to make herself clear about that matter. The explanation didn't seem to totally calm down his concern about violence and murder, but it was enough to keep him quiet and listening longer. "All we need to do is finding a way to break in there and rescue that girl with the tools we have at hand." She proposed, making an extremely complex problem sound too easy. He felt she was forgetting many, many major issues and details, but didn't really want to argue and was left with nothing to say, as usual. Used to be the leader, he was reluctant to take other people's ideas as valid, but it was justified. His logic made him a great strategist, so most of times his point of view was the best way to do things.

By only looking at him through the ruby quartz glasses, she instantly knew he wasn't precisely keen on her idea and sighed frustrated, taking away her gaze from him. "I know you don't like the idea, but please say something." She asked him making an effort and trying to involve him on finding a solution to that puzzle, even though she knew he didn't want to get involved on that task at all. "I don't like the idea." He said sounding extremely tired. She frowned at him reproachfully for having only repeated what she had just said to him on the first place. "Yeah, I have guessed that much." The irony came naturally out of her mouth, even if it wasn't something common in her, but he had absolutely called for it. It made her angry to see him uninterested on the mission the Professor had given them and she felt he had left her all alone trying to cope with a responsibility they were supposed to be sharing. "What do you want me to say, Jean?" He asked her looking away as well, not wanting to face her when he knew she was right on being mad at him. "I might be the one plotting all the missions, but I have no idea about how to solve this and the massive mess I've got inside my head is not helping at all. I can barely put two ideas together, how am I supposed to find a way to help a girl I don't know when I can't even help myself?" He explained to her in a way that sounded like a complaint, which made her frown even more for a moment, before her expression softened with empathy. "I know you need to do everything absolutely perfect and flawless in order to feel safe, Scott." She said taking his hand softly in hers, making him look at it for a moment, before looking back at the floor. "But we can't always have the certainty that whatever we plan to do is going to work out perfectly. Sometimes we have to take chances…" Her voice was soft and kind but the look she was giving him demanded Scott to behave on a certain way: the way she expected him to do and so, he dared not look at her yet, looking away to a even further point of the floor. "I don't even ask you to carry the burden of taking this decision on your shoulders. Just trust me on this one. I know we can make it!" She said convinced right before he gave her an ironical look. "I thought you said you didn't know whether we could make it or not…" She rolled her eyes getting mad at him again. That was not the time for being immature, she thought. "Don't twist my words, Scott. You know what I mean, please let's stay on topic…" She asked with a tired sigh. Remembering that conversation made her feel guilty for planting the doubt on his head. "_He could be a little more assistant too and refrain from being ironic too_" Jean thought. "Sorry." He whispered an apology, still not looking at her and behaving rather stubbornly. She was used to it, of course.

Scott remained silent for a while before looking at her more calmly. His resent for the previous conversation completely forgotten and a worried expression written all over his face. Jean immediately recognized the expression he always had when involving on plotting a mission and felt relieved. "Thank God!" She thought slightly smiling to herself. "Look, Jean… I don't think it is as easy as you put it." He finally confessed his opinion to her in a sincere way, trying not to make her feel hurt in the process, but she didn't seem concerned about him thinking her idea was lousy, naïve or too simplistic. In fact, she looked at her through the thick glasses encouraging him to continue, so he did. "You haven't finished recovering from the last incident and we could get seriously injured doing it your way, even killed…" He explained sounding terribly tired of the argument, but he had to admit he had no better idea of how to solve the problem. "Even if we managed to find the girl, how are we going to make her trust us and follow us here?" He sounded discouraged, but she was determined not to fail to the Professor. She gave him a little encouraging smile and caressed his cheek once, while still holding his hand on her other one. "I do know what I'm talking about here, Scott. Honestly. It might sound simplistic when I say it this way, but I've already thought every detail. It will work" She begged softly, her face barely inches from his, knowing she could make him agree that way. There was nothing he wouldn't agree to if she asked nicely and close enough. Knowing that, Scott tried not to look at her, to avoid falling into her trap and giving in to her charm, but it was only a matter of seconds before he got lost into her green eyes, coloured red by the ruby quartz glasses. They looked into each other eyes in silent. It was as if they were having a silent competition over who would be right that time, whose advice they would take. The confused look on his face and the puppy dog expression made clear she had won by only being sweet. How lousy a leader was he? Was the sentence on his mind as he doubted the decision he had just silently made. "You've always taken all the right decisions for us, Scott. And you said you didn't know what to do about the mission this time… let me be the one you can rely on… trust me just this once." She asked barely audibly as she tip toed to place a soft kiss on his lips. And so, without knowing how it happened, Scott Summers agreed to go along with her insensible plan.

"What are those?" Scott asked Jean the next day with a puzzled expression on his rather innocent face, as she walked to him and offered half a dozen different pills on a tiny glass with a bright smile. "Pills" She said with a mischievous light in her eyes, exhibiting a small confident smile. "And you're gonna take them" Added right after placing the tiny glass on his hand and offering him a glass of water also. "What are they for?" He wanted to know getting a little impatient. His control demanding neurosis wasn't all that happy to have her in control of what usually was his responsibility. It somehow made him feel helpless and lost and, those, were feelings he totally loathed. She was well aware of that fact, but in such a great mood as she was, she couldn't help but finding his lack of patience absolutely adorable. She smiled at the face he made and waited a second or two before actually stopping playing and getting serious. "If you insist, the grey one is for the migraine, the long green one is for the body aches from the fight that put us in this situation, the round pink one keeps your liver in one piece after all the medicine cocktail and the little blue one…" He interrupted her with the impatient look still hardening his features. "OK. I got that, but why?" He went straight to the point. The constant headaches and pieces of thoughts he accidentally kept on receiving from everyone around him had turn him into a much moodier person than he ever thought he could be. He even began understanding women and their constant mood swings he related to the feminine instinct. "Don't you miss thinking without having to make a huge effort to be logical without feeling your head tearing a part? That's why." She summarized with a confident look on her face while he still looked suspicious. "You're gonna love them!" She promised. "_She looks so perky today… too perky I'd say… It's almost irritant_." He thought suddenly becoming over conscious of how annoying dealing with her gift was. "_It looks like she knows what she's talking about. I bet she has already tried them. Yes, that must be why she seems so happy_." For he didn't recall it being her birthday or any other special occasion for Jean to be behaving so lively. "Fine. I'll take them." He agreed before putting the pills on his mouth and drinking the water with a wincing expression because of the sour taste of the medicine. "_What's the worst thing that can happen to me anyway? Overdose?_" He tried to be funny to himself, not precisely achieving it. "Great, because we're going to need our minds as clear as possible if we're going to get this girl back tonight." He looked at her confused, partially shocked to hear that. "_So soon? What is she thinking about!?"_ He asked himself completely lost from the minute she took control of the operative. "Relax. I'll walk you through it." She replied to his silent complaints with a warm smile on her face. Seeing him so helplessly worried about practically everything and doubting every word she said and every directive she gave him was too much for her. Jean found him extremely cute when feeling insecure, and she felt an urge to hug him and tell him that everything would turn all right even if it wasn't his idea. She also knew it wouldn't change a thing, for his need to be in charge and have every single detail under control was something nothing in the world would be able to disappear. "Follow me to the danger room." She asked nicely, being patient and tolerant with her poor confused ex-husband.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks to all that have been reading me throug the years and have been patient with my lack of perseverance. Especially to Zara Rose Myar who has encouraged me to post another update. Please keep on reviewing so I can feel guilty enough as to keep on writing XD

Jean


	13. Would you choose pride or love?

Author's note: Hi!! This chapter took me a little longer than I expected, but I wanted to make sure I wrote it the best I could, putting only my most ingenious ideas into it and not just the first thing that crossed my mind. Even though, I'm not happy with the result, but then again, am I ever? I want to thank those who reviewed my story and /or added it as a favourite or story alert. It's really great to know there's more people interested in this particular couple as I am. I'm planning on making a web site on them next year, with all the pictures involving their romance from Uncanny X-Men #1 until today, but as you all know… it's going to take a LONG time for me to find them among the chaotic mess my comic books are =P Just be patient!!

Oh, on a more interesting short-term note, you'll be seeing more of the 'competence' on the next chapters, but don't frighten, I don't intend to make this a Jean x Logan fic (over my dead body… XD). I just thought that since I am figuratively painting this funny portrait of Jean and Scott's daily life (with all the missions and mishaps that includes). Or at least the part of it where they try to fix the relationship after what the Phoenix has done to them… well… If you ever had a boyfriend/girlfriend who had an annoying suitor orbiting them you'll know what I mean. Sometimes third parties can't be avoided as a part of the equation, if only for the sake of the things their presence makes you think, say and do. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. See ya on #14!!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough year... but 2008 is promisingly good so far.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

A mutant swapped Scott and Jean's powers and they've decided to rescue the young mutant the Professor asked them to retrieve the old fashioned way... with tactical vests and guns. Will they be able to find the poor mutant girl without getting themselves killed in the process??

**Would you choose pride or love?**

The danger room was definitely different that day and Scott didn't even need to get inside to notice the strange atmosphere. As he entered the changing room to get ready for whatever Jean had in storage for him, he found his locker open and, as he approached it, he saw a tactical vest resting on top of his spandex suits. A tazer gun along with a can of pepper spray sat next to it, completing the unusual pile. "_She's gotta be kiddin_" he thought with an incredulous frown on his face, before he took of his t-shirt. The next second, a presence on the door frame he involuntarily picked up with his new acquired mental abilities, startled him. It was Jean. He didn't need to turn around to know it, but he did it anyway, out of habit. For some reason, Jean confidently entering that room made him uncomfortable. The sign on the door read 'Men' so, technically, she was trespassing, despite the fact he was still dressed from the waist down and there was nobody else in there to witness her transgression.

Jean couldn't help giggling at Scott's face, equally bothered and embarrassed. Of all the men that lived in the mansion, she was probably looking at the only one who had issues with a beautiful woman seeing him half naked. That was one of the thousand little things that made her Scott special, she thought smiling at him warmly for a moment.

"How do you like my idea?" She asked casually as she approached him slowly, the way one would do not to scare a wild deer. "You're insane." He informed seriously as he absently pulled his X-men suit from under the vest. "I thought you'd say so." Jean replied. "But since you've already agreed to go along with it…" She shrugged with a playful little smile on her lips as she became aware of the fact he had stopped undressing after noticing her standing behind him. She couldn't help teasing poor Cyclops whenever her ex-_husband_ became shy around her, even if a part of her felt guilty for doing so. Seeing his blushing face made it definitely worth it. Man, did she miss her telepathy.

After deciding to give Scott a break, Jean left the room to get herself ready for the training session, stopping by the door for a moment on her way out. "Wait for me in the danger room, I'll get the simulation ready and meet you there." She promised looking way too comfortable playing the leading role for him to be able to relax.

When Scott finally made it to the danger room with his new equipment on, Jean was already there, a shooting practice simulation running. He saw her slender figure leaning on a large counter to aim at the bull's-eyes. It was so strange to see her holding a gun in her delicate hands, for a moment there he didn't believe his own eyes. She looked so not-like-her with the enormous tactical vest she was wearing, he almost didn't recognize her. Then he saw a mass of red hair coming out of the huge headset she had on and he knew it was definitely his Jean. Otherwise, he would have thought there was some kind of S.W.A.T. woman practicing there for some strange reason. Cyclops blushed deeply at the image, which he couldn't help finding too alluring to even move. He just stood there watching her shoot.

As she ran out of ammo, Jean removed the headset and turned around to see whether Scott had arrived yet or not, only to find him looking at her too stunned to do anything but stare. He tried to say something but ended up closing his mouth again a moment later, as the words wouldn't come out, making him turn a little redder than before. Her dark red shades made her look like some kind of hot but bizarre fantasy where she was wearing his glasses.

"Before you tell me I'll get us both killed…" She hurried to talk before he could protest, walking to him with the huge headset in her hand, she gave him some time to recover from her look, so he was as calm as usual when she got to his side. "Let me tell you most people seldom aim for the head or the arms when shooting at the chest or the stomach is the most logical choice. As well as the head, which is easy to miss, those are the most lethal targets, so I'm certain it wouldn't be as risky as it seems on the first look." She explained so confidently he didn't frown this time. Apparently, he was seriously thinking about her words as far as Jean could see on his serious face.

"I know you're right. This is a great call given our current situation." He admitted looking at her seriously, with that small frown he always showed when trying to apologize for something. "And I'm proud of you, Jean. Honesty." He said softly placing his hand on her forearm for a moment. "Had I not panicked as I did, I would have done the same call…" That was something he wouldn't admit to anyone but her and she smiled gently at those words, too conscious of the effort he surely had made to mouth them. "Hum… ok. Let me see if I got this right. You've been saying I'll get us both killed and now I'm being congratulated for the exact same proposition… Say, what drug are you on?" She asked next, jokingly trying to protect his pride by not giving his words too much importance. To her surprise, he remained serious, as if willing to talk about it.

"I'm serious." He insisted as she continued to look at him, completely puzzled, not knowing where he was going with that speech. "It's only…" He sighed, not finding the strength to admit his defeat yet so, he took another second before trying again. She waited at him patiently, silently smiling at him to give him the confidence he always lacked whenever he tried to be serious about a delicate matter. "I'm just… I'm finally getting used to the idea of having you back, having this chance to actually get everything we've ever wanted…" He began to explain. "The mere thought of…" He needn't finish that sentence for her to completely understand what he meant. She loved him so much when he worried! It made her want to calm him down and cast his worries away, but that was something she never quite got the hand of. "Jean, if anything happened to you on this mission because of a decision I made… I would never forgive myself. That is why I couldn't… you know." _"So, it's ok if I die because of a choice __**I **__made?"_ She couldn't help thinking of the irony, but unfortunately for her, he caught her thought.

"You know it wouldn't!" He replied at once, feeling a little tingle of resentment towards her for even thinking that. "It never is!" Scott finally crossed the line after which he stopped being shy and would just say whatever was on his mind out of anger, frustration or desperation, depending on the case. In that moment, it was just too hard to tell. "Every time you died, a part of me died with you, Jean! One might think I should have grown accustomed to the whole process by now, but I haven't, you know!?" He couldn't help but being ironical when talking about the subject. It was the easiest way to take distance from the whole problem so he could talk about it with some dignity. For her, it only meant pain. Him causing her pain, torturing her with those words that referred to something she had been unable to stop or even modify all along, only allowed to witness it and suffer. She had no way to know he was just venting without her telepathy. "Every time you came back I thought things would be different at last, and I really hoped they would, but they just weren't. Whenever everything seemed like settling down there it came again to take you away from me. Then you appear again somehow and tell me everything will be all right and I believe you like a fool, only to end up burying you for the zillionth time…" Since Scott had begun to talk uncontrollably, Jean felt more and more guilty about all the things he was complaining about, warm tears suddenly falling down her fair cheeks.

"Do you think I ever wanted that for us? Or to have anything to do with the Phoenix? Or for you to have to go through all you did? That's why I told you to move on, Scott! There's nothing I can do about it except feeling sorry for you and terribly guilty inside, without being able to stop the agony! Nor yours not mine…" She defended herself, reproaching him for accusing her of all those things out of the blue. "Why did you even bring that up in the first place, Scott? We were having a nice time… We've had this conversation a thousand times already! It's proved it doesn't take us anywhere…" _"Anywhere we want to be, at least"_ She thought. She was so upset she didn't even realize she was crying. "I didn't mean to bring this up, Jean. I'm sorry." He apologized at once, truly regretting taking the conversation down that path in the first place. He tried to think of a way to clean up the mess, but his head had begun to ache filled with her pain and words had never been his strong point to begin with. "I didn't mean to make you feel guilty. Didn't intend to get this reproachful either. I just wanted you to understand why I wasn't all too keen about your plan and the whole conversation got completely out of control at some point…" He looked down at the floor. With that repented tone of voice and a clear, glassless view of his handsome eyes that showed nothing but guilt, she couldn't remain mad at him for too long. Especially when she knew him so well. She didn't need telepathy to understand the meaning behind the clumsy nervous words her ex husband was saying.

"I understand." She said softly, understanding as always, hiding her pain deep inside to be able to show him a faint smile. He smiled back, still ashamed of his own behaviour. "I've been looking so hard for a sign that this time nothing will come between us…" He began excusing himself again, but she made him stop talking by gently placing two fingers on his lips. Her eyes flashed with fear for a moment as she remembered that dream, but a second later it wasn't there anymore and Scott didn't see it under the dark shades she was wearing. "We're here, together, several years younger. Isn't that enough of a sign?" She asked him, desperately trying to convince herself. Scott smiled and took a step closer, looking into her eyes. "You're right. It was foolish of me to let my fears ruin the moment." He confessed, but she hurried to interrupt him before he fell into a self-pity circle from which it was nearly impossible to take him out without a miracle. "I think I know just how to recreate the mood…" Jean suggested with a playful grin, once again making an enormous effort to burry her pain away from him. She knew that if none of them took the first step into peace and let the grudge go, they could keep on arguing forever. Of course everything would have been much easier if it weren't always her, but… Hey! If that was the only way to save the relationship, she was more than glad to swallow her tears and sadness. She knew they'd both be thankful for it in the long run.

"Just think about whatever made you blush so hard when you walked in and kiss me." She whispered getting closer to him and making him blush instantaneously. Having been caught staring at her like that was embarrassing, but having Jean talking about it was even worse. She giggled. "That's what I meant." Jean said as she drew him closer by putting her arms around his neck. Deep inside, she still felt angry for having being accused once again of something she hadn't been able to help doing, especially since she had already apologized about it several times, but she kept on reminding herself she had put him through enough pain already. It was time she began compensating him for all the pain, even if it meant stepping over her pride and being nice to him after the argument. After all, hadn't she cried many times wishing for a chance to go back to the old times, even the bad old times when they quarrelled and to make things right? Didn't she promised that, given the opportunity, she wouldn't waste precious time arguing if there was something she could do to turn the situation around and make him smile? Now it was her chance to make him happy and she wasn't going to ruin it for anything in the world. With that thought in her mind she hugged him close, kissing him as if the world would end any second.

Logan hit the control panel with an angry fist up at the control cabin of the danger room and the simulation's hologram zapped for a moment, bringing them back to the real world. "We better get on with the training session." Jean said as she caught Logan's figure leaving the visible part of the control room. Scott followed her gaze, but his competitor was gone by then. "There probably must be other people wanting to use this room." She added as innocently as she could. As much as she loved Scott, she also cared about her friends and tried not to hurt any of them when it depended on her.


	14. Confessions of a wife

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, X-men or anything else in this story. I'm only writing it for fun.

**The Phoenix's Amend**

A mutant swapped Scott and Jean's powers and they've decided to rescue the young mutant the Professor asked them to retrieve the old fashioned way... with tactical vests and guns. Will they be able to find the poor mutant girl without getting themselves killed in the process?

**Confessions of a wife**

Jean sat on the waiting room with her back on the seat and her legs crossed. Her hands rested on her lap on what appeared to be a relaxed position. On the inside, she was fighting the urge to fiddle with her hands or, what would be even better, run away.

It was not in her nature to second guess her own decisions, but she had to admit this particular one was plain stupid.

She argued with herself a couple more minutes before finally deciding to get up and leave but by the time she stood and reached for her bag on the nearby seat, the secretary called her name. "The doctor will see you now, Miss Gray." She announced with a polite smile. Jean instinctively tried to read her mind to find out which way she should go, as she always hated to ask that kind of questions. She thought it made people look stupid and preferred to pick people's brains a little rather than feeling pathetic.

Naturally, the trick didn't work and she soon found herself looking around for a signal or anything that would point her in the right direction. "It's the last door down to the left." The secretary indicated with the condescending that she hated so much. "Thank you." Jean replied suddenly too conscious of the fact that she was blushing.

A man was waiting for her at the small square room at the end of the corridor. He was sitting on an armchair an he rose to greet her. The doctor pointed her to a second sofa and returned to his original position. "So, what's been bothering you, Jean? It's Jean, right?" He asked for confirmation. She nodded uncomfortably and tried to put her thoughts straight. "I've... never done this before." She confessed nervously playing with her hands. "It's all right." He assured her. "Why don't you try to relax and tell me what's going on?" Jean thought that, if he really knew what was going on in her life, he surely wouldn't be sitting there looking so confident and smiling friendly.

She didn't know where to start. There were so many things out of place and so many others she couldn't tell him that it seemed impossible for her to describe her problems to an outsider. _"I should have left when I had the chance_." She thought as he patiently waited for her answer. _"Think, Jean. Think! There has to be something you can tell him!" _"I have a problem with my husband." She finally said.

The man nodded calmly and looked at her expectantly, clearly encouraging her to go on. He was tall, ruddy and a little fat. He was even balding a little on the top of his head and wore a plain shirt and a boring necktie. Definitely not the kind of person who would believe in an X-file, she thought.

"Is he cheating on you?" His voice brought her back to reality and she wondered if she'd spent too much time trying to figure out which version of the truth to tell him. "Oh, no! It's not that..." She defended him too soon only to realize the thing with Emma still bothered her. It was her idea in the first place, all right, but it still hurt that he didn't resist her mind control or something. The man saw her hesitate and said nothing, waiting for her to correct herself. He knew it would happen sooner or later, but she just remained silent again. It was way too difficult to explain if you couldn't involve the Phoenix or talk about mutant super powers or mind control. "It's complicated." She finally said with a sigh.

"That's all right. Just try to put it simply." He adviced. That made her realize she'd have to stretch the truth a little if she wanted it to make sense to him and wished again that she had left before. Then it occured to her that maybe and only maybe, he could really help her in some way. _"At least he's not systematically trying to make me feel guilty."_ She thought.

"I encouraged him to see another woman." That was the closest to the truth she was able to tell him but even though it was definitely a half truth, it still hurt her to speak the words. The man seemed mildly surprised but he told her to go on. "You see, I..." _"I die every once in a while and he gets hurt and feels lonely so... yeah... like that's gonna work!"_ That internal joke gave her an idea about the right angle to choose. "I'm really ill." She muttered, suddenly touched by a thought. It occured to her that comparing it to an illness was a really good way to describe what being possessed by the Phoenix felt like. What that entity did to her life was horribly similar to a terminal disease where she constantly acted out and slowly turned into someone else while her body was worn out by the stress of handling the Phoenix.

Jean realized she was drifting away again and tried to remain focused. "I..." She paused as she thought of a way to put it. "...have been ill for many years now. I have come close to death many times and then..." There had to be a better term for rebirth, right? "...then I'd get better for a while but it's only temporary. It always comes back for more and there's no way to cure it." She spoke slowly, fighting the urge to cry as she soaked herself in this censored version of her life. In fact, not being able to talk about it openly only made it much worse. Many more feelings kept bottling inside with no chance to escape.

"But you said you had a problem with your husband, right?" He was trying to lead her to put both ideas together and get to the point. It was one of the things shrinks do, making people face their fears by describing them thoroughly. "I do." She replied a little resented. She didn't like being asked personal questions by complete strangers. "I love my husband and I want him to be happy..." She felt that was the first thing she had said to him that was completely true. "...but I don't think he is." She lowered her eyes for a second. "No. Wait: I know he's not happy." Jean corrected herself immediately. She was sure of it but it was so painful to admit that she had been trying to avoid the thought, telling herself that maybe it was just her fears talking. "Having to go through this with me every time, wishing that things will get better, that this will be over and then seeing me... go unconscious, getting worse again..." She couldn't find the right words. She felt the tears blurrying her vision and blinked them away, making them roll down her cheeks. "I wanted for him to be happy so I moved out..." _"to another universe"_ She ironically added to herself. "I told him to start seeing someone else... There's a woman who likes him so I kind of forced them together and went away. I disappeared from his life so he wouldn't have to suffer for me any more." As she listened to herself, she realized how stupid and messed up her logic was at the time she made that decision. It made no sense to her right now because, even if he had managed to be happy with Emma, he and the rest of the X-men would still be bothered by her every return as they were the ones in charge of killing the Poenix whenever it got out of control. There was no way she could stop being an annoying task to them and she would always hurt them in the process of death and rebirth because they all loved her as a friend. In letting him stay by her side, she would have given him the chance to at least enjoy the brief peaceful moments between the chaos.

Jean grew silent for a while and the psychologist did too, thinking of what she had just told him. When he saw her walking in, he could easily tell that she was probably regretting her visit, but he coudl have never guessed she was mortally ill. She looked so young and full of life, he thouth. He felt real pity for her despite the training on not to relate with the patient.

"Doctor?" She asked when a minute went by in silence. "I'm sorry." He apologized immediately. "I was thinking." The man admitted visibly embarrased. "I'm better now and it seems like it could be definite, although it's difficult to say for sure." She began talking again before he could. "And you don't want to talk about it, not even think about it in case it will lead to another disappointment." She nodded. "He was with that woman for a..." "What's her name?" Psychologists always liked to name everything and call every thing by its name. "Emma." She said as calmly as she could, but he didn't miss the anger in her eyes or the tension on her voice as she spoke her name. "Emma." He repeated. "Yes." She said impatiently. "He's been with her for a while, but we're back together now." "I see." He said in a tone that meant he was sure she was going to get into a jealousy issue. "The thing is... he's really mad at me for forcing him to be with this... with Emma." Jean found that having to call her by her name made her angry but she didn't want the man to begin talking about how important it was to do so. "He says I took away his free when I made the decision for him and we've been arguing about it ever since." The man looked surprised to find she was not going to complain about him and Emma but was worried about something else instead. "I apologized a hundred times and he says he's forgiven me, but I think he's still mad at me." She complained.

"Well, he has the right to be upset." He admited. "But the truth is he could still have chosen not to be with Emma and he didn't." The words hurt and the fact that the man seemed to be calm only made it worse. "Has it occured to you that maybe he's mad at himself for giving up on you when you needed him?" Jean looked up at him and, for a moment, she forgot just how mad she was at the doctor for talking to her like that. His words made complete sense given Scott's tendency to blame himself for everything that went wrong in the universe. She knew he really had no choice about Emma after she tampered with his mind, but now that she came to think of it, it made sense for him to feel guilty about being with her anyway. In fact, he could even be mad at her for making him feel guilty or for making him do something he would never have done under normal circumstances. Maybe he thought she turned him into someone he didn't want to be and now he disgusted himself because of what she did.

At that point, her reasoning became too complex and twisted even for herself and she decided to stop looking for excuses. Realizing that he was mad at himself was surely enough data to begin thinking of a way to fix things without driving herself mad trying to explain every single reasoning step that led him to that conclusion. She just had to find a way for him to forgive himself and stop feeling guilty, that was all. _"Easier said than done, sister."_ She thought afterwards, but the feeling of despair was gone and she allowed herself to smile briefly. "You're probably right. It sounds like something Scott would do." She admited visibly relieved. "He's always blaming himself for everything and that would also explain why he's been making me feel guilty all the time." She reasoned. "It could be, yes. He might feel the need to put you through the samet thing he's feeling."

In that moment, the cell in Jean's purse began to rang and she needn't answer to know who it was and what the call was about. "I'm sorry, doctor. I'm afraid I have to go now. I have to take this call. It's important." With that, Jean left the room and hurried out of the building.

"Scott. What's wrong?" Jean asked through the phone. "It's ¿replica?. They're moving her tomorrow. We need to get her out of there tonight." He explained, his voice filled with worry. "I'm on my way to the mansion. I'll be there in half an hour." She promised with a smile on her voice. Despite the bad news, she was happy to at last know what was going on inside his head and, for the first time in what seemed like years, she felt truly confident that they'd find a way to solve their problems.

Author's notes: Thanks to all those patient enough to wait for this update. I've been really busy in my real life to write fanfics, but I won't stop until I finish this one, even if it takes me another 10 years. I promise you'll see the end someday.


	15. Every little detail

**Every little detail**

"Wait! Let me check that corridor first!" Scott told Jean telepathically as he expanded his mind the way Jean taught him to do, so he could make sure there weren't any other guards around the corner to stop them.

Getting inside the prison had been a relatively simple task, considering the fact that they had only been learning how to use each other's powers for a really short period of time. Jean had a really simple time adapting to use Scott's optic blasts, because she only had to keep them at bay by using the ruby quartz glasses or visor and eventually shoot a blast or too. Nothing too fancy as long as she avoided long fights or precission jobs.

Scott, on the other hand, had to slowly learn the delicate art of telekinesis and telepathy. Luckily for him, he had Jean to guide him and, as soon as he figured out how to read her mind while blocking out the rest of the people in the Mansion, she was able to help him with it.

The process had been mentally painful for Scott but it also happened to turn out extremely instructive for both of them in more than one way. Jean discovered that her love wasn't a quick learner as she had been while training under the Professor when she was a teenager, and he discovered that being the telepath of the group wasn't as nice as he had always thought it to be. Now he was learning for the first time what other people really thought about him and that was a really hard blow to his already shaky self esteem. Jean had done her best to make him feel better about himself, of course, but her usual efforts didn't seem to be enough to compensate for that extra excuse to feel unworthy. Telekinesis posed an even harder challenge for Scott, so they had decided to base their training and strategy on her optic blasts and his recently acquired ability to sense people and put them to sleep telepatically.

So far, Jean's plan of entering the facility the human way was proving to be flawless, despite the fact that they had ultimated the last details only minutes before going on the mission. Scott made a mental note to trust her more in that regard and decided that, from that moment on, he would be asking her whenever he felt unsure about a strategy instead of just bashing his head against a metaphorical wall until the Professor solved the dilemma for him.

Half an hour later and many floors below, they finally found the brig. A long corridor went out of the lab into the mutant ginney pig storage area. The place was much bigger than they had first imagined and considering the fact that the lab was relatively small, the cells seemd to occupy most of the basement floor. Scott approached one of the cells, where the electrified bars didn't manage to conceal the mutant inside, curled up in a tight ball on a pathetic excuse for a bed. "There's so many of them..." Jean whispered in concerned amazement as she walked through the corridor and saw that most of the cells were occupied. Scott was very aware of that fact, since his head had started aching the second they got close to the brig. All those people thinking and dreaming together were messing with his concentration but he tried to block out the migraine that threatened with affecting him.

"We have to help them," Jean decreed. "We can't," Scott argued. "I have no true control over your powers and we don't know how much longer the guards will stay asleep. There's no time to time to waste." "We must help them, Scott," Jean insisted concerned about the future of those poor mutants. "They'll die a lab rat if we don't," She pleaded with her best weathered-dog face as she rested her hand on his strong forearm. Scott hesitated for a moment and she took advantage of it. "Just this once. Everything will work out." He seemed to protest but she talked faster and said "Trust me." That did the trick. Her judgement had been so right so far, that he felt he owed Jean that much and decided to trust her.

Jean didn't wait for his answer and started bolting the locks with her optic blasts. Startled, the sleeping mutants inside the cells woke up in shock, amazed at the idea of being rescued and set free. "We're here to help you escape." Scott announced using his leading tone to suffocate any chat in the corridor. "This people will hunt you down, so I suggest you all lay low for a while and leave the country. There's a safe haven for anyone willing to believe in peace between our kind and humans and even if you don't, we'll help you get to safety." Jean gave him a significant look. "But for now let's concentrate on getting all of you out of here," he finished the speech in a hurry.

For a moment, the mutants stood silent in the treshold of their cells. Some exchanged worried glances with each other and the rest looked at Scott in doubt. "There's no time to waste! We need to move fast!" Scott reminded them authoritatively. "How do we know you don't want to use us for your own purposes?" A girl at the back asked defiantly. Scott recognized her as the girl they had been sent to rescue. The other mutants hesitated still, ennerved by the suggestion and Scott grew anxious, knowing that his control over Jean's powers was weak. He had no way of knowing when the guards he had put to sleep would wake up. For all he knew, they could be already on their way. "You don't but you're free to stay here and continue to serve as guinney pigs for the rest of your lives... or you can come with me." He argumented. This seemed to work because a couple of the mutants came out of their cells and walked towards him. That made the rest of the prisoners follow like a herd of scared lambs.

"This way!" Scott guided them to the end of the corridor and then through the maze that was the lab.

In a matter of minutes they were at ground level, running to the exit where the guards Scott had stunned still lay on the floor, unconscious. However, before any of the mutants could reach the high security door, a huge bomb-like blast rocked the entire building, destroying the wall ahead and covering them in debris. Burried alive, Jean tried to remain calm and used Scott's powers to blast herself free hoping not to hurt anyone else in the process. She knew she was taking a huge chance by doing so, but she also knew that helping the rest would be impossible from under the debris.

Once free, Jean instinctively looked for Scott. She found him a few feet away, doing a decent job at freeing himself with her TK. He hadn't wasted any time learning to control it, but since moving big boulders didn't require any fine motor skills, it turned out to be an intuitive job for him. Jean decided to leave him alone, not daring to risk hurting him with her newly acquired optic blasts.

A few moments later, Scott got rid of the debris trapping his upper body and scanned the area for Jean's red hair. When his eyes met her visor, he turned to help the rest of the mutants, who were already aiding each other out of the rubble. In the mean while, Jean looked for the cause of the explosion. That was usually Scott's job but since she was the one with the destructive power now, she guessed he'd have her do it. They had known each other so long, Jean knew what Scott would order without having to read his mind and he just took her place after hearing her think about taking his.

The cause of the explosion made its way through the hole before Jean could get out of the facilities to check the grounds. It was a tiny mutant with spikey hair and the ability to blow up things by touching them. She immediately recognized this Gambit look alike from a previous confrontation the X-men had had with him a few years back in the timeline the Phoenix intervened. "Scott!" She cried to call her attention now that she had no way of contacting him telepatically. He turned around to see several other mutants enter the destroyed building.

"Great!" Scott mumbled under his breath right before Jean started shooting at them with her optic blasts. He felt quite useless with Jean's powers absent her years of training, but refused to stay with his arms crossed so he did the only thing he had learned to do with his telepathy and concentrated on putting them to sleep, one at a time. The task turned out to be harder than he had imagined. With the guards, he had to worry about only a few of them at a time and that made them easier to block and simpler for him to concentrate. In this case, there were a hundred brains thinking at once, mentally screaming to get out of the debris and there was also the intruders to worry about. His headache kicked in and he found it impossible to block.

Jean saw him fall to the floor through the corner of her visor, but kept attacking the intruders, since keeping them at bay was the only way to protect him. Following her example, some of the recently freed mutants helped Jean against her enemies while a few others kept trying to free their comrades trapped under the debris.

The newly arrived mutants were shooting to kill and despite the effort of Jean and her allies, were winning the battle. Of the few captives helping her agianst the common enemy, only two remained unharmed while there were at least seven of them as far as Jean could see. The battle wouldn't last much longer and she knew they were going to lose, so she turned to Scott. If they were going to die, at least she wanted to do so looking at him.

Jean's mental state of desperation seemed to shake Scott out of his momentary paralisis. Using all his willpower, he managed to tune out most of the thoughts that cried for help in an attempt to locate the minds he was supposed to be attacking. With a lot of effort, he managed to single out the mutant whose powers resembled those of Gambit. He thought about putting him to sleep, but he knew the situation was desperate, he had seen that inside Jean's mind and realized that the circumstances called for more drastic measures.

With little training in either telepathy or telekinesis, Scott's options were limited, but he had no time to waste, so he decided to take a chance for once in his life. The determined look on his eyes caught Jean's attention and she knew he had some sort of plan. That thought gave her the strenght to keep on fighting and she charged at her enemies with renewed strenght. In the meanwhile, Scott organized his ideas into a plan of sorts and took a moment to block the migraine once more before attempting to do anything else.

When Scott considered that his mental situation got as good as it could become under the circumstances, he tracked down the mind of the mutant capable of blowing things up and attempted to take control over his psyche. He had no idea about what he was doing and it took him several attempts to get him to do more or less what he wanted, although the man moved somehow like a puppet. "Attack your friends," he ordered him trying to make the command as strong as he could. A moment later, several pairs of amazed eyes saw the tiny mutant turn agains his own team mates and Jean knew Scott had had something to do with it. She beamed at Scott for a brief moment before resuming her efforts to keep the intruders at bay.

The confusion the battle generated had given many of the mutant prisoners a chance to get out of their debris prison and recover and by the time the tiny mutant began attacking his own friends, there were several other mutants helping Jean and Scott. That turned the tide in favour of the X-men and demoralized the opposing team, which had started to retreat out, into the lab grounds. A couple of seconds later, however, an explosion similar to the one that had partially destroyed the building took place and the fight was over.

Scott had already started working on turning a second foe into a traitor when it happened. A bald mutant on their side had used his superior strenght to throw huge boulders at the enemies, serving the double purpose of freeing the fallen ones from under the rubble and repelling the foes. He succeeded a couple of times, managing to incapacitate two of their enemies. His third attempt brought along unexpected results, as the tiny mutant he was targetting tried to protect himself from the boulder using his own hands as a shield, for he knew his powers would take care of the piece of debris before it could hurt him. What the bombing mutant didn't foresee was the fact that the smaller pieces of concrete resulting from this new explosion could become deadly to others when travelling in all directions at high speed.

Jean immediately realized what had happened, as a thousand radios exploded inside her head at max volume. It took her only a second to silence them to a comfortable level and then she thought of Scott, felt his fear, his agony. The pain of his optic blasts coming out of his eyes for the first time in what felt like years was excruciating, as it had been when he was just a teenager discovering his powers for the first time. Her headache was nothing compared to his. She wanted to run to his side and help him but years of training made her check the battlefield first.

Bodies. The debris were covered with dead bodies, both the enemies' and those of the mutants they were trying to set free. The projectiles caused by the explosion had killed some of their allies and all of their foes, including the one responsible for the masacre, but she didn't care. There would be plenty of time to mourn the fallen and distribute guilt and, since the battle was clearly over, she rushed to Scott's side. He was all she cared about in the entire world.

She found him on the floor, holding his head tightly with his hands. Kneeling by his side, Jean placed one hand on his shoulder and offered Scott his visor with the other hand. "Here," she said warmly, as if talking to a child. At the same time, Jean used her powers to alter his perception so he wouldn't feel any pain and then projected what she saw inside his head so that he could easily know where to move his hand to get the visor. "Thanks," he managed to say. The explosion had caused him a few ugly looking scratches but none was really serious.

Seeing the pathetic state he was in, Scott stood up and pretended to feel better than he actually did, looking around to calculate the damage the explosion had caused. There were many injured crawling away from the wreckage zone, into the safety of the grounds and Scot knew that there was needed: There was still work to be done.

With the help of their powers and the few mutants that were still able to walk for themselves, Jean and Scott managed to free the survivors from under the debris and leave the crime scene before the police came. Jean tampering with the mind of the policemen to make them take a couple of wrong turns whenever she felt them close to the area had something to do with their successful escape, but her humility would never allow her to give herself the credit she deserved.

"I'm glad to hear your little power swap episode has reverted itself," the Professor admitted later that day, when the three of them discussed the matter at his office. "I guess the effects wore off after the mutant responsible for the exchange died," Jean theorized with a note of sadness in her voice. Her compassive nature didn't allow her to see the dead as foes but as people, people with families that would miss them and so, she felt for them.

"That is probably the cause, yes," he admitted calmly as usual. "I have to say I'm proud of the way you handled the situation. You outdid yourselves." the Professor congratulated them. "You managed to free many innocents from a horrible fate, rescued the survivors and brought your target to the mansion as I expected." "We were very lucky," Scott minimized his deeds as usual. "and many of the mutants we freed helped us as well." "Maybe," the Professor conceded. "But you've guided those poor people to safety, helped them go into hiding... and even recruited a few mutants into our cause. No one can deny that kind of feats deserve recognition, not even you Scott." He couldn't find a way to counter that argument so he just nodded.

A couple of days later, Jean took Scott to the beach for a walk. The weather was nice and it was a lovely spring day for a picnic. They walked in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts, going over the events that took place in the past few weeks.

Jean came out of her introspection first and took Scott's hand between her own. He stopped walking and looked at her inquisitively.

"Scott, I… I want to apologize for what I did to you and Emma." He tried to make her stop but she disregarded his expression and went on. "Only now I truly understand what I did to you by taking away your right to choose. I forced you to become something you loathe and made you feel like a cheater when you would have probably wanted to stay by my side, even if it meant to keep suffering every time I died."

For a moment, she looked at him full of guilt and blinked to cast away the tears that were clouding her green eyes. "I had no right to do that and I'm sorry for making you feel guilty of cheating on me. I can only imagine... I hope you can forgive me someday," she begged, making an effort not to sob.

"I have already forgiven you, Jean" He said in an affectionate tone, clumsily drying her cheek with his thumb before leaning forward to kiss her forehead, pressing his lips to her skin for a long time. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment, trying to let the gesture ease at least some of her guilt.

The afternoon breeze was getting colder and Scott incstinctively moved closer to Jean to protect her from the chill. He slid one arm around her waist in a protective way and then used his other hand to catch a lock of her hair blown by the wind. He tucked it behind Jean's ear in a motion almost too tender for someone like him.

"Can I ask you a favor?" Scott asked after looking into her eyes for a the longest time. "Anything," she replied wondering what it could be. "Make me forget everything about her. Every little detail," he begged. "If I keep seeing her on my mind the guilt will drive me insane and I'll never be able to enjoy this," as he said that last word, he caressed her cheek and neck with his free hand.

She looked sad, but nodded with determination. "Thanks," he said. "Just let me remember that it happened and that I finally understood that you did it because you thought it was the best thing for everyone... I don't want to forget what the Phoenix did for us, but I certainly don't need to keep seeing the details..." he avoided her gaze as he said that, looking over her shoulder instead, at the sea.

"Consider it done," she said. "Getting rid of her ghost once and for all will be my pleasure. Believe me" she said in a tone that let him know just how jealous she had felt all that time, despite the whole thing being her fault in the first place. "... but first, you need to take me back to the Mansion Mr. Summers," she demanded in a playful tone that took him by surprise. "It's getting cold out here and there's still a couple of things I need to learn to master before we forget all about her," she teased him by pressing her body closer against his to make sure he understood what he meant.

"Jean..." he protested having turned a deep shade of red. "You're blushing," she observed with her arms around his neck and an amused smile on her lips that only made Scott flush a darker color. "I really missed this," she confessed ambiguously, slowly stroking his hair with her hand.

"I love you, Jean," he said a moment later, looking into her eyes. His voice dennoted a conviction unusual for him. "And I love you, Scott, with all my heart," she replied honestly. "Then marry me, again," he demanded. "I will," she assured him. "That's the one thing worth enduring the pain of death and rebirth for," Jean said before he leaned to kiss her.

Author's note: WOW. I can't believe this is over! I'm gonna miss this fic T_T but I kind of like the way it ends. They've been through so much they deserve an ending like this. Of course, I've already started plotting the second part where I make their lives hell again ;) It might take a while, though... considering how long it took me to finish this fic... but I'll get there.

I'll take an hour tomorrow to go over the first chapters and write them anew. I'm not gonna change them of course! I like this fic the way it is, I just want to correct spelling mistakes and many gramatical issues I've noticed today as I re read it... I will paraphrase many parts to make them look better because I was a terrible writer when I started this fic and I sucked at english big time. But the essence will remain the same.

Thanks to all of you who have been here for me all this time reading and reviewing, looking amazed every time I posted a new chapter after a long time of not writing. I know I would have never finished writing this if it weren't for your support so, THANK YOU!


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